


Don't You Cry No More

by hazza_andlou



Category: Original Work
Genre: BoyxBoy, Cancer, Cutting, Death, Depression, Fiction, LGBT, M/M, Self Harm, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2017-08-11
Packaged: 2018-05-14 17:30:11
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 38,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5751970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hazza_andlou/pseuds/hazza_andlou
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec watches as the boy goes and sits in front of him. And looks up “Oh right. Um a fact about me is that I uh watched my boyfriend die last year. Might as well get that out there so its all out front, since most people already know. Oh and everyone can just stare at me now I’m quite used to it.” Alec says and sits back down.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Hey So this is my first story. I hope that you like it. I was super nervous writing it. But as I wrote the first chapter I was really excited to keep going. I've been wanting to write a story for ages just never got around to it. So I hope you guys like this. And let me know what you think of it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is the new first chapter. Hope you like it.

**About a year earlier**

 

Alec and Brayden are cuddling under a blanket on the couch watching the Lion King. They had just watched the part where Scar push Mufasa off of the cliff.

“I don’t want to lose you Brayden” Alec whispers leaning down to kiss his forehead.

 

 “I know and I don’t want to leave you, but I’m getting sicker everyday. You know that, and I don-” he stops and sits up coughing hard.

 

Alec sits up with him, and runs to get him a bucket and brings it back to him. He watches anxiously to see if he’ll be okay before he called anyone. As soon as he sees Brayden start to cough up blood he calls 911.

 

“Hello, yes I need an ambulance, my boyfriend started coughing up blood. He has stage four cancer and needs to get to the hospital quickly. He tells the operator.

 

As he tells the lady his address, he hangs up and goes to wait with Brayden. Once the paramedics arrive they put Brayden on a stretcher and load him into the ambulance.

 

“I’ll meet you there. I’ll call your parents and let them know what’s happening.” He shouts and climbs into his car to follow the ambulance. He calls Brayden’s mom and explains that he is headed to the hospital. And let her know what else was happening. She told him that they would meet him there.

 

Alec speeds to the hospital, not giving a fuck, and praying he don’t get pulled over he can’t afford to be. As he is halfway to the hospital he can feel the tears running hot and fast down his face.

Alec can’t believe that he might lose Brayden. He isn’t ready to say goodbye. There are still so many things that they hadn’t done yet. Finishing school, college, marriage, kids. He knew that this day was going to come eventually he just had hoped it wouldn’t have been so soon.

 

He finally pulls into the lot and parks. He runs to the info desk to find out which floor Brayden got taken to. As he gets off the elevator he sees Elizabeth and Jason, Brayden’s parents.

 

 “Is Brayden alright? I called the paramedics as soon as I saw he was coughing up blood.” He tells them as he runs over to them.

 

He can feel the tears running down his face and then he feels Elizabeth’s arms around him and hears his dad Jason reply “He’s in rough shape but because of you, he was able to get in quickly and see a doctor. We should be able to see him soon.”

 

After another hour passes Alec is about ready to tear his hair out. “Why can’t we go in yet? It’s been over an hour since he got here.”

 

 “Any time now and we should be allowed to see him. The doctors needed to run some tests and hook him up to some IVs before we are allowed in.” Elizabeth answers just as the doctor comes out to the waiting area.

 

“Are you the parents of Brayden Andrews?” The doctor asks.

 

“Yes, how is he doing?” Jason replies quickly.

 

“He is in critical condition, I’m afraid that Brayden doesn’t have long. The attack he had today was too much for his body to handle. I’m sorry to you both, you are allowed to go in and see him now, he is in room 215.”

 

They start to walk toward the hall when the doctor stops them.

 

“I’m sorry but family only at this time.”

 

“This is Brayden’s boyfriend, and the one who saved his life. He is with us and is family. He is coming back with us.” Elizabeth tells him firmly.

 

“Sorry. Go on back, and please put on the masks before you enter.”

 

They head down the hall and before they enter Jason pulls Alec aside.

 

“Alec I know this is hard for you, as it is for Beth and I. We want you to know that you will always be like our son, and that you can come by the house whenever you need to. Thank you for everything you’ve done for him. It has been a blessing to see your guy’s relationship gro. We love you.” Jason tells him with tears running down his face.

 

“Thank you, that means so much to me. It’s been great to get to know you guys all these years. From when Brayden and I first met to now. Thank you for everything you both have done for us. I love you guys too, and we haven’t had nearly enough time to be together as a family.” Alec says quietly as he hugs him.

 

As they enter the room they see Brayden barely being able to sit up on his own, and hooked up to a bunch of different machines. Though he had seen him in the hospital before, it was nothing like this.

 

Alec walks over to the other side of the bed and pulls up a chair before sitting down and carefully taking Brayden’s hand.

 

“Did the doctor tell you what was going on? He didn’t say anything to me, just that you would explain once you got here.” Brayden asked.

 

“Brayden, honey the doctor told us that you are in bad shape. The attack took a lot out of you, and you don’t have much time left.” Jason told his son.

 

“Do I have to stay in the hospital then?”

 

“I’m not sure B. The doctors will let us know, but I would guess that they will want to keep you here to monitor you, and keep out any bacteria coming in from the outside” Elizabeth says, squeezing his hand.

 

Brayden squeezes Alec’s hand before speaking. “Mom, Dad I’ll be okay. I love you guys, I know I don’t say it very often but thank you for everything. I don’t want you guys to stop living your lives, I want you to live, and go on vacation, or something after I’m gone. Have another kid or adopt please.”

 

As Alec sits there and holds his best friend’s hand he can’t believe that their time together is coming to an end. It breaks his heart seeing him lay there with all those machines hooked up to him. He looks down and the tears are falling again, and suddenly he’s looking at Brayden as he lifts his face to his.

 

“Aleczander we’ve been best friends for as long as I can remember, and I can’t imagine anyone better to have grown up with. I am so proud that I get to call you mine. I want to spend the rest of my life which apparently is short with you. Until my last breath and my heart stops beating. You have been with me through this and so much more. I love you so much” he smiles sadly as he wipes the tears from his boyfriend’s face.

 

“I love you too Brayden, you are my whole world. I can’t even imagine what my life will be like without you there. Your smile, and laugh. You always knew how to make me smile when no one else could. I am so happy to have spend the last three years of my life as your boyfriend and even more time as your best friend before that. I am so glad that it was you that I met all those years ago.” Alec replies as he leans over to kiss him after moving the mask off his face.

 

“Alec I want you to promise me something though.”

 

“Anything love.”

 

“I want you to move on after I’m gone. I love you, and I know how much you love me, and that will never change. But I want you to find a good guy, and build a life together. I can’t be happy if I know you don’t move on. You still have so much life to live, please find someone who will make you as happy as you’ve made me. I don’t want you to be closed off, I want you to be happy. Everything will be okay”

 

“I’ll try, it won’t be easy but I will if that’s what you want. But for now let’s spend the time we have left together, and not worry about anything else.” He smiles sadly.

 

Over the next few days many of Brayden’s family and some of their friends stopped by to visit and say goodbye. Alec doesn’t leave his side, and Brayden won’t let him. Alec tells the nurses off each time they try to make him leave. Usually he will fall asleep in the chair, and move to sleep next to his best friend after the nurses do their final rounds. Finally though they comply and bring in a bed for him and sets it up next to Brayden’s.

 

Alec’s parents stop by often to drop off his homework and clothes. They let the school know what was going on and that he wouldn’t be back until after the funeral, but allowed him to get his homework and take any needed tests online.

 

After his parents leave on day he grabs his laptop and climbs in next to Brayden, and they finish watching the Lion King. The rest of that night they watch movies, and talk as if there wasn’t anything wrong, and it was another night before he got sick.

 

They end up falling asleep together, and were woken the next morning by a few nurses who were bitching about him sleeping next to Brayden, instead of the one set up for him. He gets up slowly and sits in the chair as the nurses give Brayden his breakfast and leave.

 

“Hey remember when we were nine and you dared me to take off my shirt and run around the playground at recess?” Brayden smiles fondly.

 

“Oh yeah, we got in a lot of trouble for that. I got told off for telling you to do that, and you got told off for listening to me. We had detention for two days and weren’t allowed to go outside” He replies laughing.

 

 “I miss those days. When everything was simpler when I wasn’t sick. Although that was still quite a few years before we got together.”

 

“I miss those days too, but back then we weren’t together, and these past three years with you have been the best years of my life. Even though you got sick I wouldn’t change them for anything.” Alec says hiding his face, while laughing.

 

“I wouldn’t change that for anything either. Of course the day we had our first kiss. What were we 14?”

 

“Don’t remind me that was embarrassing. I loved it, but embarrassing.”

 

“It might have been embarrassing for you, but it was the best day of my life. I remember you were all jumpy that day and I could tell that something was bothering you but you wouldn’t tell me no matter how many times I asked. Then finally you told me that you liked me and had for quite a while. Little did you know that I liked you too, for years. You were so read and couldn’t stop talking. I couldn’t get a word in about how I was feeling. And to get you to shut up, I kissed you.” Brayden smiles at him.

 

“Yeah well it did make me shut up. Of course we were in school, and I remember you kissed me in front of the whole cafeteria, and pretty much everyone started cheering. I wanted to run away and never come back.”

 

“It wasn’t that bad.”

 

“Was too, because after our little show one of the teachers came over to us and told us off for kissing at school.”

 

“Yeah well she was a bitch, and nobody liked her anyways.” Brayden laughed as the door opened and his parents walked in.

 

“Good point. I’m going to go out to the waiting room for a bit so you can have some time with your parents. Be back soon.” He says and kisses him quickly before leaving the room.

 

He calls his other best friend Zoe once he’s out of the room.

 

“Hey Zo.”

 

“Hey A, how’s he doing?”

 

“Okay, not great but hanging in there. Have I missed anything really important?”

 

“Not really, just civil war stuff in history, pre-calc has some hard formulas. But you’ve always been better at math than me. And we have to write an essay on The Great Gatsby, but that’s it. And you have all the work anyways right?”

 

“Yeah my parents have been bringing it by everyday for me.”

 

“I miss you both a lot, and everyone says hi.”

 

“I miss you guys too. I know it’s been awhile, since you guys came over here to see him.”

 

“I know. Well I need to go. I have class in a couple of minutes, but we love you both. Let Brayden know that.”

 

“I will Zo. Love you all too. Talk to you later.”

 

“Bye Alec.”

 

He hangs up, staring at the ground for a minute before deciding to get a drink before he goes back to the room. As he walks back into the room he sees all three of them crying. Not wanting to interrupt he walks back to his seat and laces their fingers together and sits down.

 

Brayden smiles over at him sadly and squeezes his hand.

 

“Zoe says everyone says hi, and that they love and miss you.” Alec tells him after him and his parents are done talking.

 

 

“I’m going to miss them all so much. I’m glad that they were able to come by a few days ago. It sucks though that it was probably the last time I’ll ever see them”

 

“We’ll all miss you too. Everyone, I mean we were the couple everyone wanted to be though right?”

 

They stayed up late that night just talking, about everything. How they had met, Beth and Jason both told them story after story about Brayden while he grew up, and stories about both of them, and all the shit they did when they were younger. That night was the first night that they all felt normal and that nothing was wrong. It was definitely something that they needed as Brayden was getting worse. Some better moments to remember before it all ended.

 

At about three in the morning Beth and Jason fell asleep in their chairs and Brayden and Alec were alone. Neither wanting to sleep, he would have plenty of time after he lost his best friend, and Brayden would go to sleep and never wake up. So he climbed into bed beside him with his laptop, and they spent the rest of the night watching Harry Potter, their favorite movies. Just laying there with their arms around each other, laughing and crying, like it might be their last night together.

 

They continued their marathon throughout the next day. His parents stopped by again, and they went out to the waiting area to talk to Beth and Jason in private. About halfway through Order of the Phoenix, Brayden started to cough. It wasn’t too bad at first, and Alec hoped it would just pass, but then they started to get worse. He jumps off the bed and slams his hand on the call button for a nurse and open the for to scream for their parents.

 

They come running in, with the nurses close behind. He can’t get near the bed again. He is forced to stand back against the wall. He’s shaking, this wasn’t how it was supposed to end. He needs to see him, to say goodbye, tell Brayden that he loves him. He tries to get to his side, but gets pushed back to the wall by a nurse. He’s fighting like hell to get back to him, before he can get through the line of nurses and doctors, he feels his dad’s arms around him holding him back. He’s in hysterics at this point, screaming and crying, but he doesn’t care. The love of his life is lying on that bed and they can’t see each other.

 

He screams as the heart monitor beeps louder. Everything goes silent. He swears time slows down as he finally breaks free of his dad and through the nurses and doctor. He doesn’t care, he has to see him again before it all ends. He reaches him and looks down into those beautiful green eyes one last time. He grabs his hand and doesn’t let go the tears streaming down his face.

 

“I love you Brayden,” He whispers and kisses him quickly one last time, not caring all eyes are on them.

 

He stares back and says” I lo-”just as the monitor goes into a steady stream of noise.

 

Alec lets out a piercing scream, and holds on. He can feel someone try to pry him off of Brayden, but he can’t let go. He can’t. he knows that if he does, then it’s really over. He wasn’t fast enough. He saw the light go out in his boyfriend’s eyes, as he tried to say those last three words. His eyes are cold and dark now. That beautiful green color no longer bright, they are dull and faded. This isn’t Brayden anymore, he’s gone, and not coming back. But he doesn’t care, he can’t let go.

 

He’s numb. He doesn’t have a clue how long it had been since he held Brayden’s body in his arms. Weeks, days, minutes, seconds, He doesn’t know when it was that Beth and Jason came over and hugged their son. Everything is silent, and fuzzy. None of it’s real, all he remembers is being put in the back of his parent’s car and driven back home. He vaguely remembers being led to his room and the door closing as he sits on his bed. Slowly it all starts to come back, and then it just floods his head. He can’t help but scream.

 

‘THIS WASN’T SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN THIS WAY! WE HAD A PLAN! YOU WEREN’T SUPPOSED TO LEAVE ME! WHY US, WHY WAS IT YOU THAT HAD TO GET SICK! WE NEEDED MORE TIME! THE FATES FUCKED US OVER!”

 

He still can’t feel anything, just knows that he’s angry. At himself, at Brayden for leaving, at the world for deserting them. He’s throwing his trophies against the wall. He sinks down to the floor sobbing. He doesn’t hear his door open or his parent’s presence as they sit beside him and put their arms around their heartbroken son. After what feels like eternity his dad leads over over to his bed and lays him down. His mom covers him with the blanket that Brayden had made for him their first Christmas together. They kiss his forehead before turning the light off and closing the door. He loses track of time, as he cries for the boy he lost. Eventually as his body shuts down, the last thing he sees before the sea of nightmares is his best friend. His last though; Brayden I love you forever, until my heart stops.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me know what you thought! 
> 
> -Emilee


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey thanks for reading this! It means so much to me! So there is mentions of Harry Potter. Which is my favorite series. And there is a little shade on Gryffindor. But I love all the houses. But I am a Slytherin so bear with me. But hope you guys like this chapter! <3
> 
> -Emilee

**Present Day**

Alec woke as his phone started to play Death of a Bachelor. He rolled over to shut his alarm off, and saw his phone read 6:00. Alec got up and showered, he got out and started to get dressed. He pulled on a pair of his black skinny jeans and a black Harry Potter t-shirt. As he pulled on his bracelets he looked in the mirror. Alec had dyed his hair black the week after Brayden had passed. He couldn’t stand to have his old brown color, it reminded him too much of what he had lost. Alec knew that he had pulled away this past year from his parents and his friends. Zoe was the only person he talked to regularly anymore.

 

Today was the beginning of his senior year, he knew everyone would leave him alone just like they always did these days. He gathered his bag, and walked downstairs into the kitchen where his mom had breakfast waiting for him.

 

“Did you sleep well honey” his mom asked as he came into the kitchen.

 

Alec nodded as he sat down at the table.

 

“Ready for your first day of senior year son?” His dad asks as he walks into the kitchen and sits down.

 

“I guess, same every year why should this year be any different?” Alec replies

 

Scarlett sets down a plate of pancakes and bacon on the table “This year should be exciting Alec. You can meet some new people and get out some. I know this last year had been hard on you, but please don’t pull away anymore.”

 

Alec just eats and grabs his bag. “Do you want a ride to school? His dad asks?

 

Alec has his license but he doesn’t have his own car just yet, “No I’ll walk, I need some time alone” He replies as he walks out the door.

 

The high school isn’t too far away its about a 30-minute walk, he checks his phone and sees it says 7:00. He has plenty of time first bell doesn’t ring until 8. As he walks the familiar path to school he thinks back to when him and Brayden used to do this each morning. This last year had been really hard. Without Brayden, Alec didn’t know what to do. They had been best friends since daycare and together almost everyday. Alec had gone into a deep depression after losing Brayden, he was slowly starting to get better but it was still hard. After that day Alec had missed a week of school. When he had gone back everyone just started at him with that look of pity.

 

Alec hated that look, as the rest of the year went on he withdrew from everyone except Zoe. He used to be so outgoing and got along with everyone. Now he was one of the loner kids. Though people still came up to talk to him he didn’t want to talk to them, he knew all that they would ask about was how he was and it’ll get better.

 

As he looked up he saw that he was passing the park. He remembered how they used to come by the park everyday after school, and swing and just talk. This was where Alec had taken Brayden on their first date, and where they shared their first kiss together. They would lie in the middle of the field on warm summer nights and watch the stars. Alec hadn’t gone back to the park since. He couldn’t it was too painful, Zoe often tried to get him to come by with her as she took her little brother on the weekends. But Alec always said he had something else that was going on, and eventually Zoe stopped asking.

 

Alec takes a deep breath as he reaches the edge of campus. As he walks into the school on his way to his locker he hears someone.

 

“ALEC” Alec turns and groans as he sees a Zoe running toward him. “Its too early for this Zo” he says as Zoe jumps on him.

 

“But I missed you!” Zoe screams.

 

“I missed you too, now get off me you bitch” Alec laughs.

 

Alec turns and puts in his combination and pulls his locker open. As he puts everything inside Zoe asks him “Why didn’t you tell me you needed a ride this morning?”

 

“I wanted to walk. I wanted time to think that’s all.” Alec answers.

 

“Got it. Let me see your schedule” Zoe demands.

 

Alec pulls it out and hands it to her. “Hm so we have English, Math and study hall together this semester, and lunch” Zoe smiles handing it back as the bell rings.

 

As they head off to their homerooms Alec hears many of his classmates call out to him, to which Alec acknowledges but doesn’t answer. Zoe waves bye and tells Alec she will see him next period and goes into her room. Alec keeps walking a few more doors down until he reaches his homeroom with Mr. Wes, he goes directly to the back of the room and sits in the desk in the middle.

 

Alec watches as the desks start to fill up, he knows that today is just going to be boring and easy. Its all the same first day shit. Introducing yourself and listening to the teachers talk about what’s going on for the rest of the year. Annoying.

 

As he is thinking he hears Mr. Wes start talking, “Hey guys. I’m Mr. Wes. You guys are stuck with me all year so I hope you come to like me. I know that this is just homeroom but you guys will also have me for English. For homeroom though we will be getting you guys ready to graduate in the summer. Why don’t we start with introductions so I can get to know you, and you can get to know your classmates.”

 

As Alec looks around he notices many familiar faces and a few new students. While he’s looking around he doesn’t hear Mr. Wes calling his name for roll. “Alec Stone” he says again.

 

Alec looks up and raises his hand. “Thank you Mr. Stone, now if you will pay attention next time please.” Alec just nods and goes back to looking around the room as the teacher calls on the rest of the students.

 

Then he hears Mr. Wes “Alright now we will go around the room. I want each of you to say your name, how long you’ve been going to this school, and one fact about yourself.”

 

Oh great though Alec another fact about me. What would I even say this year, in the past I would always just joke around and Brayden and I would just laugh and say and we’re dating. But I can’t do that this year.

 

As he thinks about what he’s going to say he notices that its almost his turn. As the person in front of him stands up and says who they are and everything he knows that no one will care what he will say so with that he stands.

 

“Hi, I’m Alec Stone. I have gone to this school since preschool, and a fact about me is that-“

 

He stops as the door to the room opens and a someone walks in.

 

“Hi sorry I’m late. First day, and the office was full of other kids.” The new kid says.

 

“that’s okay. We were just going around the room and introducing ourselves. You may go have a seat at the desk in front of Alec, the one who is standing up right now. Alec you can go on”

 

Alec watches as the boy goes and sits in front of him. And looks up “Oh right. Um a fact about me is that I uh watched my boyfriend die last year. Might as well get that out there so its all out front, since most people already know. Oh and everyone can just stare at me now I’m quite used to it.” Alec says and sits back down.

 

“Alright then Alec, sorry to hear that. Well Finn how about you go next?” Mr. Wes says.

 

Everyone takes their eyes off of Alec and looks at the new kid.

 

The kid stands up “I’m Finn Rivers. I just moved here this summer. I have a younger twin brother and sister.” He then sits back down.

 

As the rest of his classmates stand up and introduce themselves. Alec isn’t sure why he chose to divulge that information. He knew that most people knew that and was sure all the teachers knew and were told to keep an eye on him this year.

 

Yeah so he had changed a bit. He dyed his hair and started wearing a bit more black than before. And withdrew from people a bit. So what, what did people expect him to do. Go on with his life like he didn’t just lose the guy that he loved? He wasn’t given any trouble by anyone at the school. He was luck enough to go to a school and live someone that was relatively okay with the lgbt+ community. After Brayden died everyone just left him alone with he preferred.

 

Yeah he might have been pretty popular before all of this happened but shit happens and people change. Though this year he was going to try to open up a bit more, but definitely not get another boyfriend. It’s too early for that, he just lost Bray. Although he could admit that Finn was outgoing and sort of reminded him of Brayden.

 

Alec noticed that everyone was done talking about themselves he looked up just as the bell rang. He stayed there since he had English next anyways. He noticed a few of his classmates stay in their seats too, including Finn. He saw Finn start to turn around like he was going to say something Zoe walked into the room and yelled “ALEC! FINALLY, WE ARE TOGETHER! I MISSED YOU BABES.”

 

Everyone turned to look at Zoe knowing that was how they were and just laughed. Alec looks at her “Zoe shut up, you’re too loud. Sit down, I missed you too.” Alec replies.

 

Zoe just looks at him and goes and sits on his desk, and kisses him on the cheek. “Well that was rude” she pouts.

 

Alec laughs and kisses her on the cheek. “Okay you freak get off my desk and sit next to me. Love you.”

 

“Love you too” She says as she sits in the desk next to him. “Are we gonna hang out after school today.”

 

“Yeah sure. What were you thinking of doing?” Alec asks her.

 

“I was thinking maybe the park…” Zoe replies.

 

Alec stares at her “Zoe you know how I feel about going there. I haven’t gone back there since.”

 

“I know Alec but you need to go back. And besides its fun to go there anyways.” Zoe pleads.

 

Alec thinks about it for a minute. “Fine Zoe but I blame you if I get emotional or anything. And you are buying me food for doing this.”

 

“Fine I’ll buy you whatever. Thank you.” She smiles.

 

As they’re talking they don’t notice Finn watching this exchange with his mind spinning. As the day goes on it’s the same thing in each class. The teacher’s talking about what to expect for the semester.

 

It’s quite boring Alec decides, finally though it is lunch. As Alec stops at his locker to put his things away he feels eyes on him. He looks around and sees Finn across the hall as he turns away.

 

Not that weird he thinks everyone stares at me since last year. And he was in class when I did my fact.

 

Alec just turns back around and continues putting his stuff in his locker and heads to the cafeteria. He goes to the table that he and Zoe usually sit at with a could of other friends and waits for them.

 

“Hey man” Alec hears as he looks up and sees Nico starting to sit down, along with Evan, Sage and his twin sister Thalia.

 

“Hey” Alec replies

 

“What have you been up to? We haven’t seen or heard of you much this summer.” Nico says.

 

“I know. Its just been hard this summer. I know I shouldn’t have pulled away like that but I needed some time alone.” Alec says

 

“Hey no problem. I know you needed space. But good to have you back.” Nico smiles.

 

“I missed you guys. Its good to be back. Zoe and I are going over to the park after school want to go?” Alec asks.

 

“Sure” The 5 of them say.

 

“It will be nice to all go and hang out again” Thalia chimes in.

 

At that point Zoe come over and sits down. “These five are going to join us after school today Zo” Alec says.

 

“Oh good I missed all of us hanging out” Zoe states.

 

“After do you all want to come over? My parents will be so happy to see me interacting with people again.” Alec laughs.

 

Alec hears yes, and yeah’s from the rest of the table. And with that lunch is over. As the rest of the day goes on Alec can’t wait for it to end. This has to be the most boring first day of school ever, Alec thinks.

 

Finally, the final bell rings. As Alec rushes to his locker to put everything away he sees his friends coming up to him. They all make their way to the Senior lot, Alec hops into Zoe’s car and the rest of their friends follow Zoe to the park.

 

Once there they all get out and start running to the swings. Alec walks along slowly smiling as he watches his friends run off. He has missed the park. Its been so long ago. Alec watches his friends swing while he goes and sits on the bench and watches them. Looking around and finally at the tree that him and Brayden used to sit under and read together.

 

He remembers sitting under that tree everyday as they read their favorite books, and new books out loud to each other. Of course their favorite series was Harry Potter. It was just magical and a place that they could go together. Of course Brayden got put in Ravenclaw and he was put in Slytherin. But hey Ravenclaw was better than Gryffindor right?

 

As much as Alec wishes that things could go back to the way there were he knew they couldn’t. Brayden was gone and Alec needed to open himself back up and get close with his friends again.

 

Alec stood up and looks over at Evan swinging, he goes over and waits before he jumps onto the front of the swing so he is sitting on Evan facing him. “Don’t stop the swing” Alec tells him. Together they swing higher and higher until Alec is laughing.

 

After a while they all get off the swings and go sit in the grass, and just talk. They talk about the everything, and what they all used to do in school with Brayden and just sharing stories back and forth.

 

“I remember when we came here once a couple of years ago and Alec and Brayden were having a competition to see who could do higher and then jump the farthest. Alec jumps and lands, but as Brayden jumps off Nico was standing in the wrong spot and Brayden lands on him” Sage says laughing. Soon they’re all laughing and remembering that day.

 

“Oh yeah. That was the day that Nico broke his arm, because when he fell he twisted it and then landed on it.” Evan said.

 

“That hurt so fucking much. But that was definitely one of the best days.” Nico smiles fondly.

 

“I know that all of this has hurt you Alec. But please don’t distance yourself again. We all missed you a lot. We wanted to do a lot for you, but you wouldn’t let anyone except Zoe near you this past year.” Evan states.

 

“I know. I’m sorry for that guys. I missed you all and I needed you guys more than I though I did. Alec replies. Soon they are all hugging and in a pile on the ground. Its around 5 so they all get up and head over to Alec’s house.

 

As they enter Scarlett and Elliot are surprised to see them all.

“Hey you guys. It’s been a while. It’s good to see you all.” Scarlett smiles at the teenagers. She is greeted with a chorus of “Hi Mrs. Stone. Nice to see you too.”

 

“Dinner will be ready in about 20 minutes” Scarlett informs the kids.

 

“Alright. Thanks mom. Guys lets go up to my room.” Alec says.

 

 

Alec leads the group upstairs to his room. Where they all talk and mess around until dinner. They all head down to dinner when they hear Elliot calling for them. As they sit down and eat the spaghetti that Scarlett made, they talk among themselves. Scarlett asks them all what they had been up to, and there were various responses of sports, and vacations. As they are finishing up Elliot asks them how their first day back was.

 

“It was pretty boring. Just the teachers going over everything that is going on this semester. Not really anything interesting. But other than that. There is a new kid that arrived today. His name is Finn. He’s pretty cute, right Alec?” Zoe teased

 

“What, I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Alec muttered.

 

“Oh whatever I saw you when I was walking into English this morning.” Zoe replied.

 

“Yeah I saw too in History” Chimed in Nico.

 

Alec glared at them “I have no idea what you guy mean. I just saw him staring at me that’s all, and besides its too soon.”

 

“Alec darling, he would have wanted you to move on. You know that right. And what’s wrong with Finn he seemed nice. I have him in my math class. He seems nice. And he’s really outgoing and charismatic” Thalia states.

 

“Yeah okay. I know he would have wanted me too. But there’s something about him that I can’t put my finger on” Alec says.

 

As the teenagers are going back and forth Scarlett and Elliot look at each other and smile. They haven’t seen their son this happy and talkative since Brayden died. They are so happy that Alec is starting to become his old self again.

As the dinner ends, and the table is cleared the Alec, Zoe, Nico, Evan, Sage, and Thalia all head down to the basement to play pool. As they’re all playing they start to talk about Finn again.

 

Zoe: “You know he really is pretty cute”

 

Thalia: “Yeah he is. I wonder if he is single.”

 

Evan: “Agreed I wouldn’t mind getting to know him more either.”

 

Alec: “Evan you wouldn’t mind getting to know anymore more.”

 

Evan: “True but that boy is hot, but I’ll leave him alone if you don’t want him”

 

Alec: “No, you can have him. But who’s to say what his preference is anyways.”

 

Sage: “True, maybe you guys should get to know him before claiming him.”

 

Thalia, Zoe and Evan all look at each other before agreeing “Fine” they all say.

 

Thalia: “Then we are inviting him to come sit with us at lunch tomorrow”

 

Alec stares at her “You guys better not be doing this to try to get me with him. There’s something creepy about him. He kept starting at me today.”

 

Thalia: “Alec he seems really nice. He sort of reminds me of how you and Brayden were. All outgoing and super hyper. I don’t think there is anything wrong with him.”

 

Nico: “Alec you should give the guy a chance. Especially after homeroom today when you just decided to share the fact that you watched Brayden die. Of course he was going to look at you. Maybe he was just tying to figure you out.”

 

Alec: “Fine. I’ll give him a chance. We can all meet him properly tomorrow at lunch.”

 

As they play a couple of more games of pool they all notice that it was getting late. And they all start to head upstairs to go home.

 

“Bye Mr. and Mrs. Stone” The five teenagers say.

 

“Bye kids” they hear.

 

Alec sees them all out and gives them each a hug as they leave. “We’ll see you tomorrow Alec” They all say. “Bye guys, love you” Alec yells out the front door.

 

As Alec closes the door and heads upstairs to get ready for bed, he realizes what he just did. Shit tomorrow is going to be a long day. He gets to meet Finn the guy who stared at him all day. Let’s hope I don’t regret this. Alec thinks as he puts on The Fray and gets into bed, and slowly falls asleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 3. Hope you guys like it. You guys meet Finn in this chapter, hope you like him. Next chapter will be in Finn's pov and will be his background so you can understand him a bit more. So it may be a bit sad. But thank you all who do read this it means a lot that people are reading it at all.  
> -Emilee

Alec groaned as he heard his phone go off. He checked the id and saw that Zoe was calling and that it was 6:45

 

“Why are you calling me so fucking early?”

 

“So you don’t over sleep cause I’m picking you up in an hour.”

 

“Fine. Bye”

 

“Bye see you in one hour Alec. And don’t go back to sleep!”

 

Alec hangs up the phone, and gets up, not wanting to be “late” since Zoe always shows up early. He goes and takes a shower, and gets dressed. As he pulls on his bracelets he looks at his wrists making sure his scars are covered completely. No one knows that they’re there and he would rather keep it that way.

 

Alec checks the clock as he heads down to breakfast, its 7:15. Alec goes into the kitchen and makes a bowl of cereal while he waits for Zoe.

 

“Good morning Alec. Did you sleep well?” His mom asks.

 

“Yeah mom it was fine, until Zoe called and woke me up 15 minutes early.”

 

“Is she taking you to school today?”

 

“Yeah, she should be here soon actually.”

 

As he says this he hears the door open, and sees Zoe walking into the kitchen.

 

“Good morning Mrs. Stone.”

 

“Good morning Zoe. Thank you for taking Alec to school, instead of him walking every morning.”

 

“Its no problem. I don’t mind at all.”

 

“Would you like something to eat or drink before you guys head out?”

 

“No thanks I ate before I left. Ready Alec?”

 

“Almost. Geez let me eat, least you could do since you woke me up early.”

 

“Alec quit. I’ll see you when I get home.” Scarlett says waving to the kids as she heads to work.

 

“Bye mom.”

 

“Bye Mrs. Stone.”

 

“Ready for today Alec?”

 

“I have no clue what you mean.”

 

“ALEC stop, you know exactly what I mean. That we are gonna really meet Finn and hang out with him. He is cute you know, and who knows if he is even interested in guys anyways. So stop freaking out.”

 

“I’m not freaking out. And okay he’s not bad looking, but it’s not like I will just start to have feeling for someone I just met. And again its too soon.”

 

“Okay I get it. But be nice today, you weren’t really into the idea last night.”

 

“Yeah fine. Let’s go” Alec replied as he puts his dishes in the sink and grabs his bag.

 

Zoe stands and walks out to her car with Alec following behind her. As they get in and start on the way to school, Zoe plugs her phone in and turns on some music, and turning it up. Alec rolls his window down and they both start singing along as the music is blasting. Zoe pulls onto the parking lot and finds a spot near the front. Walking into the school they look for their friends.

 

“Alec, Zoe” They hear Sage call out.

 

Turning around they see Sage walking towards them with Thalia and Evan.

 

“Hey guys, where’s Nico?” Alec asks.

 

“Running late as usual” Thalia laughs.

 

“Of course he is. If he doesn’t get here soon he’s going to be late though. First bell is about to ring.” Alec says.

 

“You know that boy sleeps like the dead, and won’t get up until the last minute, and just barely make it before the final bell.”

 

“Good point. I’ll see you guys at lunch. I need to get to class to claim my seat.” Alec smiles walking away towards his homeroom.

 

“Oooo to see Finn?” Thalia teases.

 

Alec keeps walking but gives them all the finger as he hears them all laughing. He gets to homeroom and goes and sits in the back. As he starts to get his notebook out he sees Finn walk into the room, and is aware when he goes and sits in front of him.

 

“Hey. Alec right?”

 

“Oh yeah. Hi” Alec replies turning to get his book out of his bag, and start reading it.

 

As Alec reads he sees Finn turn back around and smiles and goes back to reading.

 

Homeroom flies by, and next thing he knows he sees Zoe sitting on his desk.

 

“What are you doing?”

 

“Well I tried to say hi but you weren’t paying attention. So I sat down.”

 

“On my desk?”

 

“Yep.”

 

Alec goes to push her off, as she protests.

 

“Fine I’ll get off.”

 

Alec gets his drawing notebook out and starts to draw as he listens to Zoe talk to Finn.

 

“Hi, I’m Zoe.

 

“Hey. I’m Finn.”

 

“You just moved here right? How are you liking it?

 

“Yeah my family just moved here this summer. Its pretty good here, I like the little park that’s near my house though. I’ve been taking my brother and sister there in the afternoons.”

 

“Oh yeah. That’s a really nice park. We go there a lot too. I’m surprised I never saw you there this summer.”

 

“Oh we usually go early afternoons so that we can get home in time for dinner and help my mom around the house.”

 

“That’s probably why then. We all usually go later and hang out there into the night.”

 

“Well maybe we will run into each other there later on.”

“Yeah maybe.” Zoe smiles as Mr. Wes started talking about how this semester they were going to read To Kill a Mockingbird.

 

Class went by slow for Alec, but part of that might have been nerves for when Zoe was going to ask Finn about joining them all for lunch. Finally, English ended, good he thought since he had History next. One of his favorite classes.

 

As history went on, Alec wasn’t interested today he was thinking about Finn. No he thought, this isn’t happening. I can’t like him I don’t care how pretty his eyes are or his hair. I need to keep my distance as best I can.

 

His last couple of classes went by, and then it was time for lunch. Alec stopped by his locker before heading down to the cafeteria. He saw Sage and Evan at their usual table and went over to join them.

 

“Hey guys.”

 

“Hey Alec.”

 

“Hi.”

 

“I can’t wait for the day to end. It’s going by way to slow today. It’s only the second day and I swear senioritis is setting in already.”

 

“I get it. I feel the same way.”

 

“Hey guys. Sorry I wasn’t there this morning. I had trouble waking up.” They heard Nico say.

 

“You always have trouble waking up. You need to set an alarm. Maybe I’ll start calling you every morning so you get up and aren’t late or almost late every day.” Alec tells him.

 

“You call me early every morning and you’re dead.”

 

“Then get your ass to school on time then I won’t have to call you.”

 

As they are going back and forth they are joined by Thalia and Zoe. Alec waves and looks up and he sees Finn approaching the table. Great he thinks to himself, now it starts.

 

“Hey guys, this is Finn. Finn this is Alec, Thalia, Evan, Nico and Sage.” Zoe says and pointing to each of them as she introduces them.

 

“Hey Finn.” All of them except Alec say. They all look at him wondering why he didn’t say anything.

 

Oh right Alec remembers he needs to be nice. “Hi”

 

Zoe, Thalia and Finn sit down and the rest of the group starts to get to know him.

 

“So where did you move from?” Evan asks him.

 

“I just moved from a few towns over. My mom had gotten a new job over here so we needed to move so that the commute wouldn’t be that far for her.”

 

“Do you play any sports or anything?” Sage asks this time.

 

“No I don’t play sports, I played soccer when I was younger but quit in middle school so I could help my mom with my siblings. I can play a little guitar but that’s about it.”

 

With all of this going on Alec had pulled out his notebook and started to draw again, but was still listening to the conversations going on around him.

 

“How old are your brother and sister?”

 

“They’re twins. They just turned 8.”

 

“Aww that is adorable. They sound adorable.” Zoe squealed.

 

“They are, and they are really sweet with everything going on at home. Dad left a few years ago. Not too big a deal, it was just hard on my mom. Especially with my brother and sister being so young.”

 

“Yeah I get that. Same thing that happened with Thalia and I. Our older sister had to help my mom out and help her with us.” Sage replied.

 

“It gets hard, but its nice to have that bond with them.”

 

“Totally.” Thalia smiled.

 

“So what kind of music do you like?” Zoe asked?

 

“Oh, I like a lot of different music. I like The Fray, Panic! At the Disco, Ed Sheeran. And um… One Direction.”

 

“OMG. I totally love them!! They are my favorite band! We are now officially best friends! No offense Alec.” Zoe screams.

 

Alec looks up “Thanks a lot Zo.” And then continues to draw.

 

Finn just looks over at Alec to see what he’s drawing but can’t really tell, and turns back to Zoe.

 

“Who is your favorite member?”

 

“Oh um I like Louis.”

 

“AHH me too, but I like Liam. Thalia loves them too, now we have you to blast it in the car with us.”

 

“Oh yay!”

 

“We all need to go hang out at the park tonight or go over to Alec’s house.” Thalia chimes in.

 

At this Alec looks up and stares at Thalia. “Who said anything about my house?”

 

“I did just now. So can we all come hang out after school in the basement?”

 

“Yeah I guess. I’ll let my mom know that you 6 are coming over tonight.”

 

“You in?” Thalia asks Finn.

 

“Um yeah sure. Let me just check with my mom that she can take the kids tonight.” As Finn texts his mom to make sure its alright.

 

Finn looks at everyone as they are all holding separate conversations. So he turns to Alec.

 

“What are you drawing?”

 

“Why? It’s kind of personal.”

 

“Sorry. Just asking. Are you sure you’re okay with me coming over to your house after school?”

 

“Yeah it’s fine.”

 

“Okay. So can I ask you a question?”

 

“You just did.”

 

“I wanted to know why you said what you did yesterday when we were doing the facts about ourselves. Right after I walked in.”

 

“It is common knowledge to most around here. Might as well get it out there for all the new kids like you. So they don’t bother me about it later or give me side eyes. Let them stare all they want. I just don’t like people asking me about it. Can I draw in peace again? Please.”

“Oh right. Sorry. Still sorry about what you had to go through. I do sort of get it though.” Finn replies as he turns back and goes to talk to the rest of the group again.

 

Alec looks up and wonders what Finn meant by that. As the bell rang signaling the end of lunch.

 

“Bye guys. Meet you in the parking lot after, and we can all go back to my place.” Alec says as he walks to his locker.

 

The rest of the day passes in a blur, even art which is his favorite class, and he can usually lose himself in his drawings. But today he just kept replaying what Finn said to him.

 

As the final bell rang Alec dropped his books off at his locker and made his way to the parking lot. There he met up with the rest of them and they all headed to his house.

 

Once they got to his place, they all went inside and down to the basement. They turned on some music and some video games. Alec ran back upstairs and grabbed some chips and pop for everyone.

 

They all started playing video games, or pool and just sat around talking. Alec felt happier than he had in a long while. He just was surrounded by his friends. He started playing games with Sage and Finn on the Xbox. After about 2 hours he heard the front door close meaning that one of his parents were home.

 

The basement door opened and Scarlett walked down looking at all the teenagers in her basement.

 

“Why is it whenever I come home there’s always a crowd of you guys.” Scarlett sighs

 

“Mom I told you they were coming over.” Alec says not looking up from the game.

 

“I was kidding. Anyways I don’t think I’ve met you before.”

 

“This is Finn mom. He just moved here.”

 

“Oh nice to meet you Finn. I’m Scarlett.”

 

“Thank you Mrs. Stone. You too.”

 

“Oh all of you guys insisting on calling me Mrs. Stone and Elliot Mr. Stone. Please you guys call us both by Scarlett and Elliot.” She says smiling.

 

“Hey Scarlett.” The rest of the group says.

 

“Hey kids. I’ll see you guys later. I’ll bring down some pizza for you guys in a while.” Scarlett replies going back upstairs.

 

They all go back to playing video games for awhile and eating the pizza Scarlett had bought. It was about 8 when everyone started to get restless.

 

“Alright I need to go. I need to go help my mom with the kids and get them in bed.” Finn says.

 

“Yeah we need to get going too. Mom might kill us if we don’t.” Sage replies back.

 

So they all make their way upstairs, and to the door. Alec watches them leave one by one and says goodbye to them all until it was just him and Finn.

 

“Alec, thanks for letting me come over.”

 

“Yeah no problem. Seeing as you are part of our group now.”

 

“Don’t forget what I said earlier, that I sort of know how you feel with what happened to your boyfriend. And If I did something to make you mad then I’m sorry for that too.”

 

“Thanks, and you didn’t really do anything it’s just my own thing.”

 

“I get that. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

“Yeah tomorrow.”

 

“Bye Alec.”

 

“Bye Finn.” Alec says as he shuts the door.

 

Alec sighs as he turns to walk up to his room when he hears his mom.

 

“Alec sweetie. Are your okay?”

 

“Yeah mom fine.”

 

“Finn seems nice. That was nice of you guys to include him in your group. I know things haven’t been the same.”

 

“Yeah he is nice I guess. I don’t really know him that’s all.”

 

“Don’t close yourself off anymore Alec. You need to meet new people. Make some new friends.” Elliot tell him.

 

“I know dad. It’s just hard that’s all. It’ll get better with time I suppose.”

 

“It’s okay to miss him still. We do, our families have been friends since you boys were little. And losing Brayden won’t change that.”

 

“I know. I’ll see you guys in the morning. I’m gonna go up to bed.”

 

“Ok honey. We’ll see you in the morning. We love you.”

 

“Love you too. Night.”

 

“Night.”

 

Alec heads upstairs to his room and closes the door. He goes over to his bed and pulls out a box. In the box are pictures of him and Brayden and some of Brayden’s things. Alec goes through the pictures, just remembering back when Brayden wasn’t sick and the things that they used to do together.

 

As he goes through the pictures he starts to cry. Finally, he goes over to his desk and pulls out his notebook. He sits there and flips through the notebook, which is full of his drawings of him and Brayden. He goes to the one he had been working on that day and starts to finish it.

 

This one is a drawing of him and Brayden that day of them sitting on the couch and watching The Lion King. He is working on Brayden’s eyes, trying to draw them so there is life in them and not just another drawing. He wants this one to bring the memory of when they were happy and content that day. Before all the shit happened.

 

Alec has their favorite band playing in the background, The Fray. Alec keeps working on his drawing into the night. Determined to finish. When he finally finishes the drawing he realizes that its 2 in the morning. He closes his notebook and crawls into bed not bothering with getting changed. He sleeps the few hours he can before he has to get up. He drifts off to sleep dreaming of those final few days he had with Brayden.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day!! Here's chapter 4. Hope you like it. These are just going to be like flashbacks, but just pieces of Finn's past so you get a sense of where he came from and how he is. After this chapter I probably won't be writing in Finn's pov again, and stick with Alec's. If you guys like Finn's pov let me know and I will stick more in the story later on. Also trigger for some violence near the end. Its not graphic but warning.

**5 year’s old**

“Daddy, can we go play outside?” Finns asks.

 

“Sure buddy. Let me finish this email and then we will go. What did you want to do?”

 

“I wanted to play soccer with you.”

 

“Okay, go get your shoes on and meet me in the backyard.”

 

Finn runs to his room to put his shoes on and grabs his soccer ball before racing out to the yard to wait for his dad.

 

His dad comes out just a few minutes later. They set up some boundaries and goal areas before playing. They played together for an hour before Finn started to get tired.

 

“Alright buddy, let’s go back inside so you can take a nap.”

 

“I don’t want to take a nap, I’m not tired” Finn whines as he starts to yawn.

 

“Well let’s go inside anyways. We can go watch a movie.”

 

“Aladdin?”

 

“Sure, which ever movie you want.”

 

Blake picks up Finn and carries him over to the couch and sets him down. He puts on Aladdin and sits down next to his son. About halfway into the movie Finn falls asleep. Blake covers him with a blanket and goes back into his office to work.

 

**9 year’s old**

Finn’s at school, and its recess time. He is playing with his best friend Aidan, they met when they were 6 in their first grade class.

 

“Finn come on, there’s two swings open”

 

“Okay, I’m coming Aidan” Finn yells as he races over to the swingset.

 

“Let’s swing as high as we can. I bet I can swing higher than you”

“Nu-uh I’ll go higher than you.”

 

“Wanna bet?”

 

“Bring it.”

 

Finn and Aidan swing for a few minutes and then the bell rings signaling recess is over.

 

“I bet you Aidan.”

 

“No you didn’t. I was going way higher than you were.”

 

“You wish. Race you inside.”

 

“Okay, go”

 

As they race to the door, they get stopped by the teacher telling them to walk, and to watch where they were going.

 

The rest of the school day passes by quickly, and before he knows it, it’s time to go home.

 

As Finn gets home he notices that both of his parent’s cars are in the driveway. That was strange usually only mom was home when he got home, and dad stayed at work later.

 

He walks into the front door and he hears his mom.

 

“Finn is that you? We’re in the kitchen. We want to talk to you.” His mom, Charlotte calls out.

 

Finn goes into the kitchen and finds his parents both sitting at the table. He sits in his usual spot as he waits for his parents.

 

“Finn we wanted to tell you something exciting” Blake says.

 

“What is it?”

 

“Well how would you fell about a baby brother or sister?”

 

“I think that would be cool. I would have someone else to play with at home.”

 

“Well sweetie, I’m going to have a baby.”

 

“Really mom, when?” Finn can barely contain his excitement. He has been an only child for 9 years but he gets bored a lot and is excited to have someone else in the house to play with when his mom and dad are busy.

“Well the baby won’t come for about 6 more months, and you won’t be able to play with them for a few years after since they will be too little.”

 

“That’s okay though. I hope it’s a boy so that we can play soccer together, and I can teach him how to play!”

 

“Finn even if it’s a girl you can teach her how to play soccer. I bet she would love that too.”

 

“Yeah okay.”

 

Finn could tell that his parent’s were really happy and excited about a new baby. Finn wasn’t worried about the baby taking all the attention, he knew that it happens with a new baby. He heard Aidan talk all about it when his mommy had a baby girl.

 

“Finn are you going to be okay with a new baby? It won’t take up all of our time, we will still have time for you too. And we won’t love you any less just because there is a new baby in the house.” Blake tells him.

 

“Yeah dad, I’m fine with a new baby. I know there won’t be as much time for me.”

 

“We will want you to help out with the baby too. Can you do that, and be a good big brother?”

 

“Yeah! I want to help out when the baby gets here! It will be fun, and I can protect them when I’m older and bigger.”

 

Charlotte and Blake smile at each other while watching their son get excited about his new sibling. It went better than they thought it would. Of course Finn had been asking for a new baby brother for years so they knew he would be excited about it.

 

“Can the baby’s room be next to mine?”

 

“Maybe when they’re older. We were going to put the nursery next to our room so that I can get up with them in the middle of the night, so that I can hear them better when they wake up.” Charlotte replies.

 

“Okay, that sounds good.”

 

“Okay enough about the baby. What would you like for dinner sweetie?”

 

“I don’t care mom!”

 

That night they ate Finn’s favorite dinner of Mac n’ Cheese homemade of course. Then because it was a night of celebration they watched Aladdin Finn’s favorite, and had ice cream before bed time. It was one of the best nights Finn remembers.

**14 year’s old**

A few months after Finn found out his mom was having a baby they also found out that it was a pair of twins, a boy and a girl. That was when Finn started noticing the stress from his parents. Two babies was a lot of money and his dad started working more.

 

After the twins were born, Avery and Asher, things were good. The family was happy with the two new additions to the family. Although Finn loved the twins, it was hard because now that there were two he really wasn’t paid much attention anymore. He got his new cleats and everything for soccer, but that was pretty much it.

 

Now five years later things were really starting to get bad. He was almost 15 and the twins just turned 5. Things at home weren’t as good as they had been. His dad started working more, and his mom had been working on getting the twins enrolled in a preschool program so that she was able to work a bit more.

 

Finn was still playing soccer but the season was over now. Since it was summer he didn’t have school, he had been hanging out with Aidan and helping out with the twins, and working on teaching the twins how to play soccer.

 

He was teaching the twins how to play soccer with the help of Aidan one afternoon. They went out to the backyard and practice. The twins were getting pretty good, better than he had been at almost 5. After another half hour Aidan had to go home so he stayed out with Avery and Asher for a little bit longer.

 

“Good job guys. Avery pass the ball to Ash. There you go. You guys are doing good.” He could tell that the twins were starting to get tired. They were still little after all.

 

“Okay you two, let’s go inside and get a snack. Good job.” Finn went over and picked Avery up, and held Ash’s hand as they went inside. He sat them down at the table and got them each a juice box and made a sandwich and cut it in half for them.

 

Finn knew that every other 14-year-old wouldn’t even think about helping out with their siblings, but he knew that things weren’t going well at home, and besides he loved his brother and sister.

 

“Do you guys want to go watch a movie or something?”

 

“Yeah Finn. I want to watch Finding Nemo.” Avery shouts.

 

“No I want Monsters Inc.” Ash pouts.

 

“How about we go and watch The Incredibles?”

 

Finn was met with two little yells of yay. He cleaned off the table and went into the living room where the twins were waiting. He put in the movie and sat down on the couch. Where he then felt a little body come and cuddle on either side of him. He looked down and smiled.

 

The movie hadn’t been on very long when he looked down and saw that both of them had fallen asleep on him. He knew he was stuck so he covered the twins with blankets that were on the back of the couch and finished the movie, and ended up falling asleep.

 

He woke up when he heard the front door close, and saw that his mom was home.

 

“Hey mom, where’s dad?”

 

“Hi Finn, don’t you all look cute. Your dad had to work late again.”

 

“Yeah we played soccer for a bit and then watched a movie where they both fell asleep.”

 

“Well let’s wake them up so they actually go to bed tonight.”

 

Finn gently shook Avery and Asher awake, and as soon as they woke up, jumped off the couch and ran over to Charlotte.

 

“Hey guys, did you have fun today with Finn?”

 

“Yeah mommy, we played soccer outside, with Brother and Aidan. Brother says we are getting really good.” Avery beams.

 

“And then Brother made us a sandwich. And we watched The Incredibles.” Asher says jumping up and down.

 

“Well that sounds like a good day then.”

 

“Where’s Daddy?” The twins ask.

 

“Daddy had to work late tonight. He should be home to put you both to bed, why don’t you two go play until dinner?”

 

The twins run off to their room, and Finn goes and starts to help Charlotte in the kitchen.

 

“Are you okay mom?”

 

“Yeah honey I’m fine, just tired. Thank you for taking the twins this week it’s a big help not to have to put them in daycare.”

 

“I don’t mind. They’re both pretty easy since I’ve been with them since they were born.”

 

“Yeah you have been a big help to your dad and I.” Charlotte says as she gets the stuff out to make Spaghetti.

 

“Are you and dad okay, mom?”

 

“I hope so. I’m sure you’ve noticed things have been hard for awhile but I hope things will be okay.”

 

“Me too.”

 

Finn is helping bathe the twins when he hears the front door shut. Well dad’s home. He hurries through bath time and gets the twins ready for bed. He doesn’t tell them that anything’s wrong, he tucks them in and reads them a story before turning the light out and closing their door, since he senses a big fight about to happen. He walks downstairs to see his mom and dad talking in the kitchen.

 

“Hey dad.”

 

“Can you go upstairs for a little while so I can talk to mom please?”

 

“Yeah whatever, but the twins are in bed. They’ve been waiting all night for you to come home. They really want to see you.”

 

“Thanks Finn.”

 

Finn goes up to his room and leaves the door open a crack. He hears his dad come up and go into the twin’s room for a minute before going back downstairs. Once Finn hears Blake back down in the kitchen he sneaks to the stairs so he can hear his parent’s better.

 

“Where have you been Blake? The kids have been needing you. Finn has been staying home with the twins all week and we barely see you anymore.”

 

“Charlotte you know that I’ve been working late trying to get some more money for you and the kids.”

 

“Don’t give me that shit Blake. I know something else is going on. You have never worked this much or this late in years past. I know that we weren’t expecting twins but now that Avery and Asher are here and have been for 5 years its time that you start being home more. They need you.”

 

“I know Charlotte but I need to work so that we can get the twins onto a soccer team next year and cleats and uniforms, plus all their school stuff.”

 

“Blake don’t you dare keep saying its all for the kids. You know that we have money saved for all the kid’s sports stuff. That’s not a problem.”

 

“I don’t know what you want from me Charlotte. You want me home more but you complain about the lack of money.”

 

“Blake I just want you home more for the kids. Things weren’t this hard a few years ago. Is there something else going on?”

 

“Like what Charlotte? You think that I’m cheating on you?”

 

“I don’t know. Are you? You’re the one that just brought it up.”

 

“No Charlotte how could you even think that? I love you and the kids. I couldn’t do that to you guys.”

 

“Oh really. Cause last week I found a few notes in your office, and your phone had texts that kept coming in from a woman named Samantha. So who is Samantha, Blake?”

 

“Just someone from work. She wanted to get together to talk about the next case.”

 

“Blake don’t lie to me. How long has it been going on?”

 

“Nothing is going on Charlotte.”

 

“FUCK YOU BLAKE. I GAVE YOU A CHANCE TO TELL ME WHAT’S GOING ON AND THAT YOU WERE SORRY. BUT OBVIOUSLY THAT ISN’T GOING TO HAPPEN.”

 

“CHARLOTTE NOTHING IS GOING ON. I’M NOT CHEATING ON YOU.”

 

“BLAKE GO PACK YOU OBVIOUSLY DON’T CARE ABOUT ME OR THE KIDS. I WANT YOU OUT TONIGHT, GO STAY WITH YOUR GIRLFRIEND.”

 

“OKAY FINE CHARLOTTE YOU WANT TO KNOW THE TRUTH WELL HERE IT IS. I’M SICK AND TIRED OF YOU COMPLAINING ABOUT MONEY AND ME NOT DOING ENOUGH. I DIDN’T WANT THE TWINS. ONE I WAS FINE WITH BUT THIS IS TOO MUCH. AND FINN, I CAN’T EVEN LOOK AT HIM THE SAME AFTER WHAT HE TOLD US LAST YEAR. ITS GOTTEN TOO MUCH. I’VE BEEN WITH SAMANTHA FOR 2 YEARS, AND WE’RE HAPPY. HAPPIER THAN BEING HERE WITH YOU.”

 

“YOU’RE BLAMING THE KIDS FOR THE MESS YOU MADE. THIS IS NOT THE TWIN’S FAULT THEY WERE BORN. I LOVE THEM NO MATTER WHAT AND OKAY MONEY HAS BEEN TIGHT BUT WHO CARES. I LOVE MY KIDS, AND ABOUT FINN. HOW DARE YOU, YOU DON’T DESERVE TO BE A FATHER IF YOU CAN’T LOVE YOUR CHILD FOR WHO HE IS.”

 

Finn runs back to his room when he hears his dad coming towards the stairs. He sits and listens by his door as he hears his dad packing a bag. This can’t be happening, what about the twins. They’re going to wake up tomorrow and realize that dad isn’t here. I hate him, how could he do this to us.

 

Finn hears Blake walk back downstairs and Finn follows him.

 

“WHY DID YOU DO THIS DAD? WHAT ABOUT ME AND THE TWINS? DID YOU EVEN THINK ABOUT US AT ALL? YOU BROKE OUR FAMILY. WHAT ABOUT THE TWINS WHEN THEY WAKE UP TOMORROW? DO YOU KNOW HOW HURT THEY ARE GOING TO BE THAT THEIR DAD LEFT BECAUSE OF THEM? WHAT ARE THEY GOING TO THINK?”

 

“Finn I’m sorry, I didn’t want it to happen this way. I love you, and tell the twins I’ll miss them too.”

 

“NO FUCK YOU DAD. I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN. I KNEW THINGS WERE BAD BUT THIS IS SOMETHING TOTALLY DIFFERENT. TO KNOW THAT YOU WERE CHEATING ON MOM. I KNEW YOU LOOKED AT ME DIFFERENT AFTER I TOLD YOU I WAS GAY BUT THIS ISN’T OKAY, I CAN’T HELP WHO I AM. I AM PROUD OF WHO I AM AND IF YOU CAN’T ACCEPT ME THEN YOUR LOSS. AND TWO YEARS? YOU FELT THIS WAY FOR TWO YEARS? THE TWINS DON’T DESERVE YOU. YOU DON’T LOVE THEM, YOU ONLY CARE ABOUT YOU. I HATE YOU!! I DON’T WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!! AND IF I CAN HELP IT YOU WON’T BE IN THE TWIN’S LIFE EITHER.”

 

Finn walks away and stands by his mom. Charlotte is by the open door waiting for Blake to leave. “You will hear from the lawyer in a couple of days. I want full custody of the kids, I don’t want to take this to court but if I have to I will, and I will win. Now leave.”

 

Finn watches as his dad drives away, and goes over to hug his mom.

 

“I’m sorry mom, I should have known something was going on.”

 

“No Finn I’m sorry you had to see all of this. Thank god the twins are in bed right now. I don’t even know what’s going to happen now. I guess I’ll need to look for another job.”

 

“I’ll help out with Avery and Ash mom, don’t worry about them. I can quit soccer too. I’ll be getting my license next year so I’ll be able to take them to their practices and school and appointments too if needed.”

 

“Thanks sweetie but you really don’t need to quit soccer. I know you love it, and you have a really good chance at making Varsity as a sophomore next year.”

 

“It’s okay mom really. I want to be able to help out.”

 

 

**16 year’s old**

The last year and a half without dad has been really hard, that next morning was extremely tough. The twins were still too little to know what was really going on, but his mom and he had explained that dad was gone, and he wouldn’t be back.

 

The twins cried since they didn’t understand but through this last year and a half they have come to understand more of what’s going on. Mom had to get another job, and he had quit soccer to take care of the twins. Some days the twins went to daycare until mom picked them up, and on those days Finn went and hung out with Aidan.

 

“Hey Aidan, want to go over to the park after school? Avery and Ash can go to daycare after school. I need a break.”

 

“Yeah that sounds good. It’s been a while since we’ve been able to hang out.”

 

“Yeah sorry. Mom has been busy with work so I have to take care of them. Doesn’t help that dad had to do that, and that he doesn’t pay much child support for the twins. He’s a dick I hate him for it.”

 

“Yeah I know Finn but at least its in the past now. It will pass, and at least now the twins are older, and are learning how to take care of themselves.”

 

“Yeah good point, I’ll meet you at the park after school.”

 

“Sounds good”

 

Classes end a few hours later and Finn heads over to the park and meets Aidan there. They go and play a soccer game one on one for a while and then head over to just hang out on the play equipment.

 

“Finn have you even spoken to your dad since he left?”

 

“Only when I had to for court. When mom got full custody of me and the twins. I don’t want to see him again, and I told him that, the night he left too.”

 

“Right you told me that. That’s hard Finn. This weekend you want to come over like old times and we can hang out in my room, get a pizza and play video games?”

 

“Yeah sounds great. Let me check with my mom, so she can arrange stuff for the twins.”

 

“You can bring the twins over while your mom’s working. Grace is only a year older than the twins, and they’re friends anyways so they can hang out and your mom can pick them up on her way home. My mom won’t mind watching them, she loves the twins.”

“Cool, I’ll let mom know. I could use a break.”

 

So Saturday afternoon Finn loads the twins into his car and they head over to Aidan’s house. “Be good okay you two, don’t cause too much trouble with Grace. Aidan was nice enough to invite you guys to come over to play with Grace.”

 

“Okay Brother, we’ll be good.”

 

“Aidan and I will be in his room if you guys need anything and Mrs. Smith will be there too if you guys need anything.”

 

Finn pulls into the Smith’s driveway and gets Avery and Asher out of the car. They ring the doorbell as they hear feet coming to the door and it gets pulled open by Grace.

 

“Okay you two go on but be good. Mom will be here in a few hours to pick you up.”

 

“Okay Finn, see you later.” The twins reply as they run off with Grace.

 

Finn heads to Aidan’s room and walks in. “Hey Aidan. Thanks again for letting Avery and Asher come with me.”

 

“Yeah no problem Grace needed someone to play with anyways. What do you want to do?”

 

“Um, should we play some video games and then head to the park tonight?

 

“Yeah that sounds good, we haven’t done that in awhile.”

 

“Soccer in the dark, is going to be awesome. Haven’t done that in forever.”

 

“Man I’m pissed that you had to quit this year! We could have been on Varsity together. Center forward and left forward. We always work better as a team.”

 

“I know but Blake leaving was so hard on the family I had to take care of my brother and sister. Family first. But I’m not going to stop practicing. Maybe if mom finds another guy then I can rejoin next year. Senior year and get a good scholarship somewhere, only way I’ll probably be able to go to college without having to pay crazy amount for loans. I do miss being on the team though. It was a great way to stay in shape and get away from whatever’s going on at home.”

 

“If you can come back next year, coach would be thrilled. Last year he was so pissed that you quit. And this season too, like he gets it but he wishes it didn’t have to affect you playing.”

 

“Yeah tell coach that perhaps next year I’ll be back on the team. And that I haven’t stopped practicing. And who knows if he keeps coaching he’ll probably get Asher too. Asher and Avery are getting really good. But why wouldn’t they when they have me as a coach.”

“Shut up you pretentious ass.” Aidan laughs as he pushes Finn over.

 

“Well its true. No one can best me in a game.”

 

“Yeah, yeah we all know how good you are.”

 

They hear a knock on Aidan’s door before it opens. It’s Avery and Asher.

 

“Bye Brother, mom’s here to pick us up.”

 

Finn gets up to give them each a hug. “I’ll see you guys at home tomorrow okay. Be good for mom tonight, don’t give her a hard time about going to bed. She’s had a long day at work. I love you both.”

 

“Bye Brother. Love you too.”

 

The door closes as the twins go to leave, and Finn and Aidan go back to playing their game.

 

After another hour Finn and Aidan head downstairs for dinner.

 

“Hi Mrs. Smith, thanks again for having me over, and the twins.”

 

“No problem Finn. I know you probably wanted to get out of the house, and I love the twins they are really good kids.”

 

“Yeah they are. Even with my dad leaving they seem to be doing all right.”

 

“How have you been with all of this?”

 

“I’m okay. It gets hard having to care for them mostly by myself since mom works all the time, and not being able to play on the team but other wise it’s okay.”

 

“Finn, just know that you and the twins can come over here any time. You guys are practically family.”

 

“Thanks Mrs. Smith.”

 

“Hey mom, Finn and I were going to go over to the park tonight to play some soccer is that alright? Aidan asks.

 

“Yeah Aidan you boys go have fun. Just be careful lot of weird people around. Make sure you both have your cells on you okay?”

 

“Yes mom, we’ll be okay and have our ringtones the loudest they will go.”

An hour later Finn and Aidan were in the car on their way to the park. It wasn’t dark yet but it was getting there, it was about 6:00, so they would still have some natural light before the floodlights came on.

 

That was the cool thing about their park, the soccer field had floodlights so that people would come out and practice whenever they wanted to. Finn and Aidan had always gone out there in the evenings especially in the summer to play and practice drills before the season started in the fall.

 

As they reached the field and started to stretch they noticed that there was a group of people in the park that night. They were all huddled in a circle and it didn’t look like they were up to any good.

 

Finn ignored them as he and Aidan started to do one-on-one. They had been there for a couple of hours when they were just starting to finish up their game and pack up. As they made their way over to their car they saw that the group had spread out their circle a little and there was a boy standing in the middle of the group.

 

Finn nudged Aidan “Aidan we need to run now.” He whispered.

 

As they both started to sprint over to the car they heard a scream, and a body fall. They heard the gang yelling at each other about the two kids over there just saw us and to get them.

 

Aidan and Finn started pushing themselves they were almost to the car when Finn felt Aidan fall back behind him. “Aidan let’s go we need to get out of here!”

 

“I’m coming, I’ll catch up just get in and start the car I’ll be right there.”

 

Finn runs around to the driver’s side and starts the car and sees Aidan about 10 feet from the car when he gets grabbed by one of the gang. Finn starts to get out, when he sees Aidan shake his head and mouths lock the door. Finn locks the door as everything plays out in front of him. He watches in horror as his best friend gets beaten in front of him and he is helpless to do anything. He starts to scream and calls 911.

 

“HELLO? YOU NEED TO COME TO THE PARK NOW. THERE IS A GANG HERE AND THEY JUST KILLED A BOY AND ARE BEATING UP MY FRIEND.”

 

“Sir, calm down I have sent a cop over there now. Where are you at?”

 

“I’M IN MY CAR. THEY ARE BEATING HIM IN FRONT. HE COULDN’T MAKE IT IN TIME.”

 

“Okay sir, just stay in the locked car the cops should be there any second.”

 

Finn is sobbing at this point, and he hears the sirens coming. The gang looks at each other and finally just shoots Aidan, and finally looks at the car like they didn’t notice it before, and sees Finn inside. But before they can come closer to the car the cop cars surround them and is able to arrest them all except one who managed to get away.

 

As the cops come over to the car and sees Finn, they start to ask him all the standard questions. Finn tells the cops what happened, and that one got away and then calls Aidan’s mom to come to the park. A few minutes later Mrs. Smith pulls into the parking lot and goes over to Finn.

 

“What happened? Where’s Aidan?” She asks worried.

 

Finn just starts crying again and can only point to where all the cops are.

 

Mrs. Smith runs over to the cops, who tells her what happened and she starts to cry. Finn finally gets out of the car and walks over to her car to get watch Grace. She is asleep so she doesn’t know what’s happened. Mrs. Smith walks over to Finn and hugs him.

 

“I’m sorry I couldn’t help him. I should have stayed with him and helped him to the car. I shouldn’t have left him.”

 

“Finn don’t you dare think this is your fault. If you had stayed with him, then you would be dead too. But thank you for calling me. I want you to go home and let your mom know what happened okay?” she cries.

 

So Finn leaves Mrs. Smith to deal with the police and goes home. Once home he goes into his mom’s room and tells her what happened tonight. He can’t stop crying; he thinks it’s his fault that Aidan died. That he should have stayed back to help him. Not let Aidan think that he could make it after he fell.

 

A few months later after school is let out, and the court hearings are done, and the funeral is over. Charlotte buys a new house a few towns over and they move.

 

**Present day**

These past few years have been tough, first Blake leaves them all, and then as things were starting to get back to normal he watches his best friend get beaten and shot. He went through a bad depression this past year and it was hard to stay happy so that he could help with the twins. He couldn’t shut down; his mom was depending on him.

 

He got dressed that morning and covered his wrists with a long sleeve shirt. First day at a new school they don’t need to know his past. He’s going to be his happy self for him and his family. Perhaps if he does it long enough he will start to believe it. After he gets ready he goes and makes sure that the twins are up and dressed. He gets breakfast ready for them when they come downstairs and make sure they look presentable for the first day and drives them to school. He goes in with the twins to the office to get the checked in and to their classes.

 

“I’ll pick you guys up after school okay? Wait in the school for me, have a good day. I love you guys.” He hugs them both before sending them into their room, before driving to the high school.

 

Finn knew that this year had been hard on them too. With them getting older and dad left and Aidan. They were good friends with Grace so it had been hard on them to go to the funeral and know that Aidan had died, but they weren’t told the whole story just that he had passed away. It had been hard on them to leave and move to a new city, but they were good kids. Finn knew they would be able to make friends easily.

 

As Finn pulled into the parking lot and parked, he saw a kid with black hair walking down the sidewalk going into the school. Finn went into the school and made sure he was registered and got his schedule and his locker number. He heard the bell ring, as he made his way to his locker and put his bag inside and grabbed his binder, and made his way to his homeroom.

 

As he got there that kid he saw was introducing himself. He apologized to the teacher Mr. Wes and explained why he was late and made his way to the seat Mr. Wes told him to sit which was in front of the kid standing up. As he heard the kid Alec say “Oh right. Um a fact about me is that I uh watched my boyfriend die last year. Might as well get that out there so its all out front, since most people already know. Oh and everyone can just stare at me now I’m quite used to it.”

 

Finn couldn’t believe that someone would just say that, that was just random and weird. But he though Alec was sort of cute and judging by that they had sort of gone through the same thing he thought. Maybe we could become friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked this! Thank you so much for reading this! <3


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 5. Hope you like it. Thanks again for everyone that's been reading this. Means a lot. This chapter is a lot happier than the last one!

Alec woke and rolled over as his alarm went off blaringly loud. He shut it off and got ready for school. As he got downstairs to make himself breakfast he noticed that his mom was still home.

 

“Hey mom, I thought you had to leave early this morning.”

 

“Morning sweetie. I was just about to head out, but I wanted to see if you were coming home after school or if you were going to hang out with your friends today.”

 

“Yeah I should be home tonight mom, why?”

 

“Your dad and I wanted to tell you something. Nothing that you need to worry about, that’s all.”

 

“Okay mom, I’ll let you know if anything changes. But I should be home right after school. I need a break from them, so that I can do some homework.”

 

“Alright, then I’m heading out, I love you see you tonight.”

 

“Bye, love you too.”

 

Alec finishes eating as he hears Zoe walk in.

 

“Heyyy”

 

“Hey Zo. I’m just about ready, and then we can go.”

 

Alec grabs his bag and they walk out to the car.

 

“So Alec it wasn’t as bad as you thought last night right?”

 

“No it was fine. Better than I thought.”

 

“So tell me what you really thought of Finn after you actually spent some time with him.”

 

“He was nice. Okay yes, he kind of reminds me of Brayden, just how he acts. He’s really energetic like Bray was. But only as a friend anyways.”

 

“Right A. I saw he stayed behind for a minute to talk to you. What did he say?”

 

“Oh nothing much just thanks for having him over. Why?”

 

“Oh, umm I had just seen him looking at you a couple of times last night, and in some classes that’s all.”

 

“Oh well, I was a bit cold towards him I suppose. He probably just wants to know why.”

 

“Why were you? Does it have to do with Brayden?”

 

Alec was saved from having to answer as they pulled into the parking lot. They got out and went to their lockers to get their books.

 

They were running late this morning so Alec went straight to homeroom after he got his books, and said bye to Zoe. As he got to homeroom there was only a couple of minutes before the bell was due to ring.

 

“Hey Alec.” Nico came over to his desk.

 

“Hi Nico.”

 

“Where were you and Zoe this morning?”

 

“We were running late. Zoe got to my house later than usual. I see you made it on time though today.”

 

“Yeah mom made me get up early this morning.”

 

“Well good. You barely make it on time anymore since you got your license last year.”

 

“Hey not my fault I like to sleep.”

 

“Yeah it is” Alec laughs.

 

“Are we all hanging out tonight?”

 

“No I can’t mom said that she wants me home so that they can tell me something, and I need to catch up on some homework.”

 

“You’re already behind? It’s only the first week back.”

 

“Yeah well I’ve been busy after hanging out with you guys the past few days.”

 

“Alright, then we’re all hanging out this weekend. We all need to do our mandatory first weekend campout.”

 

“Sounds good let’s plan more at lunch then, with everyone else.”

 

Nico goes back to his desk as Finn sits in his seat and the bell rings.

 

Homeroom goes by slowly just Mr. Wes talking about more graduation requirements and making sure everyone was caught up with all the paperwork, and that they knew what they were going to be doing their projects on.

 

Finally homeroom was over and English was starting, he got out his books for English as Finn started talking to him.

 

“Hey Alec.”

 

“Hi.”

 

“Thanks again for having me over last night.”

 

“Yeah no problem. It was nice.”

 

Yeah, since I have my brother and sister to take care of I haven’t had much time to meet anyone.”

 

“Hey guys” They hear Zoe as she sits in her spot.

 

“Hey Zo.”

 

“Hi Zoe”

 

“Are we all hanging out tonight Alec?”

 

“No Zo, I gotta get home, apparently mom and dad want to tell me something and I need to catch up on some homework.”

 

“Okay sounds good. Are we still doing the campout this weekend?”

 

“I’m hoping so, we were going to talk about it at lunch some more.”

 

“Sounds good. Finn you’re invited too.”

 

“I need to check with my mom first and make sure the twins are taken care of.”

 

“Alright cool, let us know, but we will plan more at lunch with everyone else too.” Zoe replies as Mr. Wes starts talking.

 

“Alright class as you know we have started To Kill a Mockingbird. Since we are reading it in class, I am assigning you guys a out of class project. You will be partnered up and must either write a paper, do a video, or some other project on what you thought was the most important part of the book.. This project will be due in 3 weeks. Before you guys start trying to get a partner, don’t worry I have randomly paired you together.”

 

Please don’t pair us with each other. Alec wants to be friends, but he doesn’t want feelings to develop. It’s too soon for him, but he also knows that whatever happens happens. And he might as well get used to it, since Finn is part of their group now. And with the campout this weekend they would probably be sharing a tent anyways, and… Alec’s thoughts get interrupted as he hears

 

“Alec you are with Finn.”

 

“Zoe you are with Evan.”

 

Damn, know I have to spend time alone with him. I can do this, I don’t feel anything, there’s nothing there.

 

“Uh Alec, when should we meet up to do this project?”

 

“Oh, uh we can meet tonight at my place, after school. Whatever my parents need to tell me can wait until later.”

 

“ok sounds good.”

 

Rest of class went slow as they just read a chapter aloud, but it was still bugging him what Finn had told him last night. What did Finn mean when he said he kind of knew what Alec had been through?

 

Guess he would try to find out tonight, when they work on the project. Whatever they are going to do on the project.

 

It was time for lunch after 2 more boring classes. He dropped his stuff off at this locker and went to the cafeteria. He saw that Evan and Sage were already seated at the table and he went over to join them.

 

“Hey guys”

 

“Hey Alec.” Sage answered, and Evan nodded.

 

“So we were thinking of doing the campout this weekend like always. You guys in?”

 

Yeah of course. Where were we thinking of doing it this year?”

 

“Not sure yet, we can do it at my house, sure my parents will be fine with it. But we should make sure its alright with everyone else first.”

 

“Good point.”

 

“Hi, what are you guys talking about?” Thalia asks as the rest of the group joins her at the table.

 

“Just about the plans for the campout this weekend.” Sage tells her.

 

“Oh cool, Mom should be cool with it since we’ve done it every year since we were 10. Plus we always keep the weekend open for this.”

 

“Where should we have it this year? Alec offered but we wanted to make sure it would be okay with the rest of the group.”

 

“Yeah I like that idea, everyone else?” The rest of the group nods in agreement

 

“Awesome, I’ll ask my parents tonight if its alright that we have it at my place. I don’t know why they would care too much.”

 

“What should we bring?” Sage wants to know.

 

“Whatever you guys want to bring, and sleeping bags or blankets”

 

“Awesome sounds good. Can’t wait, the campout is always fun.”

 

“Plus this weekend will be warm enough that it won’t be freezing, so we can use the pool.”

 

“Oh good. At least it won’t rain on us like it did the last couple of years.”

 

“I’d rather swim and hang out than the mud fight we had last year. It took forever to get the stains out of my clothes.”

 

“So true, my mom wasn’t very happy about the stains and getting them out.”

 

“Mine either.”

 

“We should go to the park Friday night and hang out”

 

“Yeah that sounds fun.” Alec replies as the bell rings.

 

They all part ways and Alec heads to his art class. He is a lot happier now than he had been for the past year. He can’t believe what an ass he had been to his friends. They had been there for him after Brayden had died, and he had pushed them away.

 

For the rest of the day Alec barely heard what the teachers were saying. He had too much on his mind. He was bringing Finn home to work on the English project, his parents still needed to talk to him and he had to get everything ready for this weekend. He had a lot to do, and he still didn’t really know Finn that well. But he hoped that would change after they worked on the project tonight.

 

After school Alec meets up with Finn and go over to Alec’s house to start the project. When they get there Alec sees that his mom’s car is in the driveway already. Which was strange since she didn’t usually get home until about 5. The boys go into the house and Scarlett is sitting at the table in the kitchen.

 

“Alec is that you?”

 

“Yeah mom, I’ll be in in a sec.”

 

“Finn you can head to the basement I’ll be there in a second I just need to talk to her for a minute.” Alec says as he heads towards the kitchen, as Finn goes downstairs.

 

“Hey mom, what’s up?”

 

“Oh I needed to talk to you when your dad gets home.”

 

“Why are you home early? Is everything okay?”

 

“I had an appointment that’s all. Is there someone here with you?”

 

“Yeah Finn. We got paired up for an English project. Is that okay? Sorry I didn’t let you know earlier.”

 

“Yeah it’s fine. Go work on your stuff. Dad won’t be home for a couple of hours anyways.”

 

“Alright mom, just call when dinner is ready or when dad comes home. We’ll be in the basement.” Alec says getting up and walking downstairs

 

“Hey sorry, mom just wanted to tell me her and dad have some announcement they want is all.”

 

“Yeah no problem. So what kind of project do you think we should do?”

 

“Well I’ve read this book before, it’s one of my favorite classics. I just like the message to not judge anyone before you get to know them. But my favorite part is probably Scout and Jem walking back home from her play, and Jem breaks his ankle. Just because Scout is in a ridiculous costume and they think that Boo is chasing them, so they freak out and start running.”

 

“I like this book too. That part was good. I think my favorite would be when they finally got to meet Boo and see that he isn’t a bad person.”

“Oh yeah, I was thinking of maybe a video of some sort.”

 

“Yeah I like that idea. We could use my little sister Avery as Scout and though we are too old technically one of us could be Jem and the other can film.”

 

“Well we could ask Evan if we could use his little brother, Dimitri is 13.”

 

“That would work. Hopefully Evan isn’t going to try to use him though, that would be a problem.”

 

“We can ask him tomorrow, since I doubt he’s even put any thought into it tonight.”

 

“So what scene do you want to do for the video?”

 

“I like the one when they are on their way home since it would only require Jem and Scout. And then one of us could be making noises in the trees. And we would have to shoot when its dark out so its close to the book.”

 

“Yeah I like that, it makes it easier to do, and then after we could either film ourselves talking about why we chose it and all that or we could just do that after we show the video.”

 

“Whichever, doesn’t matter to me. Since that’s really all we need to do for now, want to just hang out until dinner, or do you need to get home?”

 

“I can stay. Thanks.”

 

“Yeah no problem. Want to play a game of pool?” Alec smiles. It’s going better than he thought. It’s just easy to talk to him, friends only he reminds himself.

 

“Sure.”

 

They go and set up the game and grab sticks.

 

“So I was wondering what you mean when you told me last night that you knew what I had been through?”

 

“Well it’s kind of a long story. I don’t usually tell it to anyone but I could tell from that first day in class you would understand and wouldn’t judge me for it.”

 

“We’ve got time.”

 

“Well first off my dad left us about five years after the twins were born, he had cheated on my mom. After that I had to quit soccer, and help out. My best friend Aidan was still on the team and one night we had gone to the park to play under the lights. And well we saw a local gang kill one of their newer members, and they saw ended up seeing us. I made it to the car and was able to get in and started the car and was waiting for Aidan to get in, but before he made it the gang caught up to him. I had to watch him get beat, and die but there was nothing that I could do. So after that night I finished off the rest of the school year and the court hearings for the members that the police had arrested. After the hearings and trials were over we decided to move and get a fresh start.

 

Alec was speechless, he didn’t expect that at all. He just figured he had lost a close family member, like an aunt or something, not his best friend.

 

“Oh wow. I’m sorry. That’s definitely worse off than what I went through. Sorry I was such a dick to you when we first met.”

 

“It’s okay, I figured you had closed yourself off after what happened with your boyfriend. I wasn’t offended really. You struck me as interesting though, that you would just say that in front of the class.”

 

“Yeah last year was really hard on me. I pushed everyone away, the only person I really even let in was Zoe. She helped me a lot she was the one that kept encouraging me and helped me pull through my depression. It got really bad at one point, that she doesn’t really even know about. I haven’t told the rest of my friends either. I know they would be there for me and everything just I don’t know how much they would understand. I knew they were hurting a lot last year too. Brayden was a part of our group and had been since we were all about 6, when we all met in elementary school. But I just shut them all out.”

 

“So why are you telling me all of this?”

 

“Because I knew you understand, and won’t feel sorry for me. Knowing that you had gone through something similar but far worse.”

 

“I noticed you wore some bracelets. Don’t worry I have them too, it’s why I always wear long sleeves.” Finn mentioned without being too forward.

 

“I hide them the best I can, no one had noticed that I started to wear them last year, or at least no one questioned it. I started wearing more black, and dyed my hair so I wouldn’t be reminded of what happened. But I think I’m going to dye it back to another color. Sort of like yours.”

 

“Yeah I’ve dyed my hair for a few years. Usually blue, but I’ve had it purple, black, silver. Sort of whatever I feel like that time.”

 

“I’ve wanted to dye it a different color for awhile, and had planned on it before Brayden, but everything happened so fast I didn’t get a chance.”

 

“Can I ask what he was like?”

 

“Yeah I don’t mind. It’s nice talking to someone who didn’t know him and just talking about it in general. We had been best friends since forever, he was the most amazing guy I know. He was nice to everyone, and we had a lot in common books, music. He was just nice to everyone no matter what they had done to him, and made friends a lot easier than I did. Before he got sick we would go to the park everyday and swing and talk, and after we spent a lot of time inside reading out loud to each other. It was nice, I do miss that.”

 

“He sounds like he was a great guy. Sorry he got sick, that must have been really hard on you guys, and his parents.”

 

“Yeah it was. Thanks, what about Aidan?”

 

“We met while in elementary school, and played soccer together since we were old enough to kick a ball. He was a bit high spirited and didn’t always know when to shut up, and that got him into trouble a lot, and got into fights occasionally. But other wise he was a great guy. He was there for me when my dad left, and helped me a lot with the twins. He was my rock when I had come out to my parents the year before my dad left. My dad didn’t like that I was gay but Aidan kept my mind off of all that with soccer. We practiced a lot, and were both about to make varsity before my dad left. And then after he died I just never could get back into the game it was hard for me. He helped me teach the twins to play, and they are really good now.”

 

“He would have been cool to get to know, sounds like he was a great guy.”

 

“Yeah he would have fit in pretty well I think. Brayden too I would have liked to meet him.”

 

“Boys dinner” Scarlett calls down.

 

“Coming mom” Alec yells back as he and Finn go upstairs. Both Scarlett and Elliot are at the table when they get to the kitchen. They sit across from each other and start to eat.

 

“Hey dad, I know you guys have something to tell me.”

 

“It can wait for later Alec. Hi Finn good to see you again.” His dad replies.

 

“Hi Mr. Stone, Mrs. Stone. You guys too. Thanks for having me for dinner.”

 

“It’s no problem and please call us Scarlett and Elliot.” Scarlett smiles.

 

“Mom, Dad I was wondering if we could have the yearly campout here this year?”

 

“Um Alec, that sounds like a great idea. Do I need to get anything for you guys?”

 

“I don’t think so, but can we do burgers this year?”

 

“That sounds good. Maybe we can do a big barbeque. Their parents can all come over for it and then you kids can campout in the yard after.” Elliot replies.

 

“Thanks dad, that would be great. I’ll let them all know tomorrow. Your mom too Finn, and Avery and Asher would be welcome to come too.”

 

“Thanks Alec, I’ll talk to my mom about it tonight when I get home. That will be nice for her to get to know some people. She’s been pretty lonely since we got here and hasn’t had much time between the twins and work.” Finn says.

 

“That would be lovely. I would love to meet her.” Scarlett exclaims.

 

As dinner ends Alec and Finn head back down to the basement to grab Finn’s things, before heading back upstairs.

 

“Thanks again for having me over. I’ll see you guys on Friday then hopefully.”

 

“I’ll walk you out.” Alec says walking him to the door.

 

“Really thank you Alec, for everything. Dinner, and telling me about Brayden. I know that wasn’t easy. It wasn’t easy telling you about Aidan.”

 

“Yeah no problem. It was nice to talk to someone who really understands. And again I’m sorry for how I treated you when we first met.”

 

“It’s okay. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

 

“Bye” Alec smiles as he shuts the door.

 

“Alec can you come in here before you head upstairs?” His dad calls out.

 

“Yeah be there in a second.”

 

“So you know that we have something to tell you.”

 

“Yeah.” Alec looks between them questioningly.

 

“Now don’t worry but we just wanted to let you know that your mom had a doctor’s appointment the other day. And it looks like she is pregnant. You’re going to have twin sisters.”

 

“Really mom? I finally get sisters, I mean I’ll be out of the house by the time the kids are old enough to talk or anything but that will be fun.”

 

“I’m happy for you mom. Really I am I don’t mind not being an only child. I mean the twins are practically going to be ones since I’ll be out of the house while they grow up but I get to be the cool older brother.”

 

“I’m happy that you’re this excited. Sorry for waiting so long to tell you, we just wanted to make sure that nothing was going to happen to the babies.”

 

“It’s okay I get why you waiting. But that will be really cool to have babies in the house.”

 

Scarlett and Elliot smile at each other as they listen to Alec go on about how excited for the new babies.

 

“Okay mom, dad I’m gonna go upstairs I got some homework to get done before this weekend. I am really happy about the twins. Night, love you guys.” Alec smiles as he gets up and heads up to his room to work on homework.

 

He finishes his homework and gets slightly ahead in a couple of his classes before going to sleep.

 

The next morning, he heads downstairs to eat and wait for Zoe after getting ready. Both his parents were already gone by the time he got up. He finishes up and Zoe still hasn’t gotten there so he decides to start walking. He only walks a couple of blocks before Zoe pulls up beside him and tells him to get in.

 

“Hey sorry I was running late this morning. My alarm didn’t go off on time.” Zoe says as he gets in the car and she has Panic! playing.

 

“No problem. So the thing mom and dad wanted to tell me last night was that my mom is pregnant with twin girls.”

 

“OH MY GOD! REALLY! That is so great. You get to be a big brother. I’m so excited for you guys! I want to be the cool aunt that takes them shopping when their older.”

 

“It’s awesome I never thought I would be an older brother. I always figured that they were done having kids, and that they didn’t want anymore.”

 

“Well that’s really cool. I hope it all goes well.”

 

“Yeah me too. I couldn’t imagine what my parents would do if they lost the baby. It would be hard to watch.”

 

“Yeah I get that. Mom had a miscarriage before Carson was born. I remember how hard that was on my mom and dad. It brought them closer together though, and then Carson was two weeks early. But it all worked out.”

 

“Yeah, that’s true. Also dad wanted to let you know that we can do the campout at my house. And that before is a big barbeque so your family can come. Finn is probably going to come so his brother and sister can play with Carson and Zander at least.”

 

“Awesome. I’ll let mom know tonight then.” Zoe replies as she pulls into the parking lot.

 

They head directly to homeroom after stopping at their lockers. At lunch after every one is seated Alec tells them all the good news.

 

“So my parents told me last night that my mom is pregnant. I’m pretty excited to have a couple sisters. Since you guys all have siblings it’s finally my turn.”

 

“That’s so cute” Thalia says.

 

“Yeah it’s pretty crazy. Also the campout is on for my house. And my dad wanted you all to know that your families are to come beforehand for a barbeque probably like 5 tomorrow night.”

 

“Finn are you able to come?” Zoe asks him.

 

“Yeah my mom said that she doesn’t have to work and is excited to meet all your parents. Also Avery and Asher are excited to meet some new kids, even though they are in the same class as Carson and Zander.”

 

“Oh yeah Zander told me that they were in the same class” Nico said.

 

“Oh yeah Evan, Finn and I were going to do a video for our English project. We were wondering if we could use Dimitri for it?” Alec says as the rest of the group start talking about the campout.

 

“Yeah that should be fine. You can ask him tomorrow night. Since he is a pain in the ass thirteen year-old he will want to know what’s in it for him though.”

 

“That’s fine. I was going to give him like twenty bucks to be in it anyways. I know how he is, I watched that pain in the ass grow up.”

 

“Good point.”

 

Lunch ends a bit later and they all head off to their classes. In study hall Alec and Finn start to write out their script for the video.

 

“This shouldn’t be too hard to film and stuff at least. Do you think that Avery will be able to memorize some lines?”

 

“Yeah I think she will be okay. She likes acting and singing so she will be really excited to do this.”

 

“Okay good. How does this look for a script?” Alec asks as he finishes writing it out.

 

“Looks good, pretty accurate if I remember right.”

 

“Good that’s what I was going for. I hate when movies don’t line up with the book, or leave parts out. We can make copies of this and you can give one to Avery and I’ll give one to Dimitri tomorrow night after I talk to him.”

 

“Perfect.”

 

They finish up the script and making copies as the last bell rings. Alec heads home after school. He’s got to clean the house before tomorrow night. He ends up just walking since it isn’t that far and doesn’t really want to have anyone drive him. He’s hoping to get a car for his birthday but now with the twins he isn’t sure that’s going to happen now.

 

Alec spends the rest of the night after dinner cleaning the house, and doing his homework for the night. He also goes up to the attic so he can find the big tents that they use every year. One for the girls and one for the guys.

 

After bringing the tents down and cleaning them, Alec collapses on his bed and falls asleep, awaiting what tomorrow will bring.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked this chapter! It was nice to write a happy chapter after that last one. Let me know what you guys want to baby to be, and some names for the baby! I'm starting to run out of some names.
> 
> -Emilee


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 6. I hope you guys like it. It's a cute chapter I promise.

Alec went downstairs to get some food after he got ready. His parents and Zoe were already at the table. He was surprised that his parents hadn’t left for work yet.

                                 

“Morning guys.”

 

“Good morning Alec” the three of them replied.

 

Alec quickly made some cereal and sat down at the table.

 

“So Alec tonight, I’ll have everything set up in the back yard. Just remind everyone that their parents and siblings can all come by around five. I’m coming home early so that I can get things set up and start cooking before people arrive.” Dad said.

 

“Okay thanks Dad. We’re all be here after school and help set up before their parent’s arrive and then we can set up the tents and make sure the pool is clean and everything.”

 

“Alright sounds good. I’ll see you guys tonight then.”

 

Alec, Scarlett and Zoe all waved and told Elliot that they would see him tonight, as Scarlett also got up and left for work.

 

“So what exactly are we doing tonight after the barbeque?” Zoe wants to know.

 

“Well I thought we were planning on going over to the park tonight for awhile, and then I don’t know whatever you guys want to do. Just like we do every year, we wing it and just go along with what the majority of the group wants to do. We have Finn this year so it will be a little different, probably not anything too bad, so we don’t get in trouble or anything.”

 

“Not like that year where we all went and snuck into the aquarium so that we could go and see the sharks?”

 

“Yeah definitely not something like that. I’m still surprised that we managed to never get caught. But the security there isn’t that great so it was pretty easy once we were able to actually get inside the building.” Alec replies as he finishes his cereal and puts the dishes in the sink.

 

 

Finally, it was lunch, and Alec headed into the cafeteria sitting at their usual table. Shortly after he got there the rest of the group showed up.

 

“Hey Alec, ready for tonight?” Sage asked.

 

“Yeah totally. You guys are all coming right after school right?”

“Yeah Thalia and I should be able to.”

 

“Yeah me too.” Said the rest of the group.

 

“Once we get back to my place we have to help my dad a bit, just setting up the tents and getting the pool ready. You guys have everything right? The tents should still be able to hold all of us. Thalia and Zoe in the smaller tent and then the 5 guys in the bigger tent?”

 

The group nods, and then starts other conversations around the table, as Alec turns to Finn.

 

“Hey so the script is all ready to hand to Dimitri tonight, and Avery is for sure going to play Scout for us?”

 

“Yeah Avery is really excited to do this. Ever since I told her, she’s been going diva on everyone. It’s a bit of a nightmare honestly.”

 

“Ah she’s still young enough where it’s cute at the same time though.”

 

“Yeah but you don’t have to live with her.”

 

“Good point. I don’t, you do.” Alec laughs. “So we were planning on going over to the park tonight, after the parents and siblings all leave. That sound good?”

 

“Yeah it’s fine. It’ll be fun. Thanks for not telling Zoe or any of the others about what I told you last night.”

 

“Yeah of course. Not my story to tell, it’s yours. So your mom and brother and sister are coming tonight then?”

 

“Oh yeah. Avery and Asher are really excited. And it’ll be good for my mom to meet all of your parents and make some friends, since she’s been pretty lonely since we moved here.”

 

“Awesome. My parents love meeting new people, and I’m sure she will fit right in with them, they’re all pretty welcoming people. Oh and she can meet Brayden’s parents. I’m sure that they are going to be there tonight. I think my parents invited them.”

 

“That will be nice. Your families are still close with them?”

 

“Yeah they’re my parent’s best friends. This year’s been harder on them than it has been on me. I couldn’t imagine losing a child. Got to be heartbreaking. I don’t know how I could move on after that. But you would have to, especially if you have other kids.”

 

“Yeah I could see that would be hard, I can’t think of how Aidan’s parents are doing. I still talk to them occasionally, but not as much since we moved.”

“I get that seems harder to move on that way.”

 

Alec hears Thalia say something that worries him.

 

“So is that the plan then for tonight. We’re going to get him to do it?” Thalia says to the rest of the group excluding Alec and Finn.

 

“Make him do what?” Alec asks.

 

“Oh hey Alec didn’t know you were listening. Um nothing don’t worry about it. It wasn’t anything important. Promise.” Thalia promises.

 

Alec is about to press the issue but is interrupted by the bell ringing.

 

“You’re so luck Thalia.”

 

“Bye see you after school.” Thalia says rushing out of the cafeteria, with Zoe, Evan, Nico, and Sage following after her.

 

“That was odd” Finn says standing up.

 

“They’re planning something for tonight, and I don’t know what it is.”

 

“I see.”

 

Alec and Finn head to their last classes of the day.

 

The final bell rings and the group all meets up in the parking lot. Alec climbs into Zoe’s car and they head off to Alec’s house. Once they arrive they pile out and go see what Elliot is doing.

 

“Hey Dad, do you need any help?”

 

“Hey guys. Glad all of you guys were able to come. Yeah Alec why don’t you all go see if the pool needs to be cleaned out of bugs or anything that’s in there.”

 

The group all head off towards the pool and Alec makes sure to place his phone and wallet on the table, in case he gets thrown in.

 

Alec grabs the net and starts clearing the pool out. “Hey the tents are in the garage. Do you guys want to go grab them and set them up while I do the pool?”

 

“Yeah sure sounds good.” Thalia said.

 

Thalia went and got the tents, and everyone went and helped her except Nico who stayed with Alec.

 

“So Nico, you still hung up on that one guy in your physics class?”

 

“Nah, he turned out to be a douche. There’s this girl Kristy though that’s kind of cool that is in my Chemistry class.”

 

“Oh yeah she always seemed nice. Isn’t she one of the quiet ones, that like never talks?”

 

“Yeah that’s her. I got partnered up with her for a lab in Chem. She was really funny though, and super smart.”

 

“I hope it works out then. I know that it’s harder for you to find someone interesting.”

 

“Yeah I try to look more at the person’s personality, and types of things we have in common more than looks and I don’t care about sex.”

 

“I get you, I know how you are with that, I mean we’ve been friends forever and-“

 

Alec gets cut off as he and Nico are pushed hard from behind.

 

**Splash** “FUCK Sage. You’re so lucky the pool just got done, and I put my phone on the table.” Alec yelled. “Now someone help me out.”

 

“No way Alec. You’re just going to pull that person in.” Evan laughs, as a big splash is heard from Nico pulling Thalia into the pool.

 

“Your fault for falling for it” Nico says to Thalia.

 

“Oh whatever.” Thalia responds as the rest of the group jumps into the pool.

 

They all spend a few minutes splashing and dunking each other until they hear Elliot call out to them.

 

“Hey kids. You guys probably should get inside and change into something your actual swimsuits and dry clothes. Everyone is going to be here soon. And you guys can throw all your wet clothes in the wash.”

 

“Sure thing Dad. We’ll all be out in a sec. Do you need any more help?”

 

“Yeah go grab a stack of paper plates and plastic silverware. Otherwise I have everything else that we need.”

 

Alec got out of the pool with everyone else close behind. After they all changed they grabbed the things that Elliot asked for and went back outside where Zoe’s parents had just arrived with a young boy with brown hair, and a girl with long jet black hair that looked like she was ready to kill her parents.

 

“Hey Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Hey Carson, Luci.” Alec waved.

 

“Hey Mom, Dad. I didn’t know you were coming Luci. I figured you didn’t want to come to this thing. You didn’t last year.”

 

“They made me” Luci replied.

 

“Good then you can hang out with Dimitri” Zoe smirked.

 

“Whatever” Luci said as she walked away.

 

“Great two moody teenagers. At least they will be hanging out together” Alec said.

 

“Speaking of moody teens. My family just got here” Evan said waving at his parents.

 

“Oh great, I can go talk to Dimitri about mine and Finn’s project” Alec said as he walked over to him.

 

“Hey Dimitri, can I talk to you for a minute?”

 

“What do you want?” he scowled

 

“I wanted to know if you would be a part of my English project. It’ll be a video of a scene from To Kill a Mockingbird. I need you to play the part of Jem, and my partner Finn’s little sister is going to play Scout.”

 

“What do I get out of this?”

 

“I knew you’d ask that. What if I pay you 20 bucks to do this?”

 

“How long is this thing going to take?”

 

“Should only take one night like a couple of hours.”

 

“Fine. I’ll do it. I hope the little kid isn’t going to be annoying though.”

 

“Well you can meet her tonight when she gets here.”

 

“Yeah sure” Dimitri scowled as he walked off towards Luci.

“Great I’ll give you the script” Alec called after him, and walked back towards his friends.

 

“Well that’s taken care of, only cost me 20 bucks to get him to do it. I was worried it was gonna be more than that” Alec sighed.

 

By the time that Alec had gotten through with talking to Dimitri he noticed that the rest of the families were there. He saw a lady with short brown hair talking to his parents and Finn and two other little kids running around with Carson and Zander.

 

“Well good. If I had asked him he would have made me give him 40 and do his chores for a week” Evan grinned.

 

“Lucky me then”

 

“Hey Alec come here” Finn called over.

 

Alec walked over to where Finn was with his mom.

 

“Hey Mom this is Alec. Alec this is my mom Sherri.”

 

“Nice to meet you Ms. Rivers. Thanks for coming tonight.”

 

“Please call me Sherri, and thank you for inviting me and the twins.”

 

“Yeah of course. You guys are welcome anytime.”

 

“Thanks again, I’ll let you kids go back with your friends.”

 

“Bye Sherri” Alec smiled.

 

“Your mom seems nice” Alec said as they wander back to where the group is at.

 

“Yeah she’s the best. After everything it amazes me how she does it all” Finn replies.

 

“Yeah I bet. I couldn’t imagine doing that. I respect her for that.”

 

“Hey you two after you stop flirting, want to go swimming?” Zoe yells from the pool.

 

Alec glares at her, takes his shirt off and jumps in.

 

“Zoe you are so dead” as he dunks her.

 

“We should play chicken” Nico yells.

 

Zoe gets up on Evan’s shoulders, while Nico gets on Sage’s, Leaving Alec to get on Finn’s, because Thalia claims she just wants to watch the first round.

 

Once they are all in position Alec goes straight for Zoe trying to push her off.

 

“We were not flirting.”

“Yeah you were. You should have seen your face.” Zoe laughs. “Oh Finn that is so interesting. Tell me more” She laughs as she does her imitation of him.

 

“You’re such a bitch” Finn smirks as he finally pushes her into the water.

 

“That was rude” Zoe replied as she surfaced.

 

As Alec and Zoe were having their little spat, he didn’t see Nico come up behind him and push him into the water. He came to the surface spluttering not having been prepared to get pushed.

 

They swam around for awhile, and were joined by the younger kids for awhile before Elliot yelled to them all to dry off and come eat.

 

The parents all were sitting at the table, which left the kids to all find their own spots somewhere else. So Alec and the rest of them all went and at the edge of the pool to eat.

 

“So the park tonight?” Evan asked.

 

“Yeah should we bring a ball down there or something?” Sage asked.

 

“Nah, it will probably be too dark by the time everyone leaves. We’ll just go swing, and look at the stars or something. Like we always used to do. So we should bring a couple of blankets with us.” Alec replied.

 

“I’ll be right back” Alec said walking over to where he saw Brayden’s parents.

 

“Hi Mr. and Mrs. Andrews.” Alec said giving them each a hug.

 

“Hi Alec. How are you doing.?” Elizabeth asked

 

“I’m okay, it’s been hard you know. How have you guys been?”

 

“Good. Thank you, for having us over tonight.”

 

“Yeah of course. You both are still family.”

 

“Still, I know how hard this past year has been on you, as well as us. We just wanted to make sure that you are doing okay as well.” Jason replied.

 

“Thanks. Everyone has been really understanding and that’s helped a lot this year. I don’t know what I would have done if it weren’t for my parents or the group.”

 

“I’m glad you’re doing well, Brayden would have wanted that.” Elizabeth smiled.

 

“It was nice to see you guys. Thank you for coming tonight. I just wanted to see how you both have been doing.” Alec said.

 

“Yeah you too Alec. You’re still welcome anytime you are still like our second son. We should let you get back to your friends. We’ll see you around.” Jason and Elizabeth both hugged him, and walked away back towards Alec’s parents.

 

A couple of hours later the party was over and all the adults and children had left, Alec started gathering up a couple of blankets to take with them to the park, and shoved them into Sage’s arms, and ran back up to the house.

 

“Hey Mom, we’re all gonna go to the park for a little bit” Alec yelled into the house.

 

“Okay honey, be careful, see you guys in the morning.”

 

Alec shut the door and walked over to the group who were all standing on the sidewalk.

 

“Okay let’s go.”

 

The walk was only a couple of minutes since Alec lived so close. Once they arrived they spread the blankets in a circle so that when they sat they could all face each other. They all laid on the blankets with their heads towards the middle.

 

“We’re lucky it’s so clear tonight” Thalia mused.

 

They lay there for about an hour not talking but occasionally pointing out different constellations to each other. After they all sat up and looked across the circle to each other.

 

“Alright guys. Guess what time it is” Zoe smiled clapping her hands together.

 

“No Zo that is so middle school” Alec pouted.

 

“Well too bad we’re all playing, Truth or Dare.”

 

Alec rolled his eyes hoping the worst wasn’t going to happen. Not after what he heard Thalia say at the lunch table today.

 

“Alright let’s see, Evan truth or dare?” Zoe asked him.

 

“Dare”

 

“Then I dare you to go jump in the fountain naked.”

 

“Fuck Zoe, the fountain is freezing.”

 

“You’re the one who picked dare. And you can put your clothes back on once you’re done. Not like all of us haven’t seen you naked before, well besides Finn.”

 

Evan stood up and undressed, then ran to the fountain and jumped in. They could hear him scream as his body hit the water.

 

When Evan got back the rest of the group was laughing.

 

“Hey Ev how was that? Your nipples look a little hard. Was it really that cold?” Someone said before bursting into laughter again.

 

“Fuck off that was freezing. Okay my turn. Finn truth or dare?” Evan said scathingly as he got dressed and wrapped a blanket around himself.

 

“Uh truth I guess.”

 

“Okay then, have you found anyone at school that you could be interested in?” Evan smirks.

 

“Uh yeah I guess I have. They are in some of my classes. They seem like a good person.”

 

He nods like he knows something they don’t “okay cool. Hope we get to know who that is eventually.”

 

“Okay so my turn. Sage truth or dare?”

 

“Dare. Bring it. I’m the king of dare just so you know.”

 

“Okay then I need to make this one really difficult then.” Finn thinks for a moment before smiling. “I got the perfect dare. Tomorrow we are going to go somewhere and you have to go and get waxed.”

 

“Fuck. Okay bring it on. You’re going to lose this one Finn.”

 

“Okay Nico, Truth or Dare?”

 

“Dare.”

 

“I dare you to go down the slide naked on your stomach. Flat. You can use your arms to push yourself down the slide, but you have to go all the way down, and it’s on the metal slide.”

 

“Shit, are you trying to make it so I don’t have kids?” Nico undressed, and the group stood up to go make sure he does the dare the right way.

 

Nico climbs the steps to the top of the slide and gets in position. He starts to pull himself down the slide, while yelling fuck and shit a couple of times. The group watches and by the time Nico gets all the way down the slide, Thalia and Evan are on the ground laughing their asses off. They make their way back towards the blankets and sit back down as Nico gets dressed.

 

“Alright my turn, Thalia truth or dare darling?”

 

“Dare.”

 

“Fine. I dare you to give your brother a lap dance. For let’s say 5 minutes.”

 

“Fuck you.” Thalia snarls.

 

“Why the fuck am I getting pulled into this dare?” Sage pouts.

 

“Cause of what you just made me do. Go sit on the bench asshole.”

 

Sage gets up and walks over to the bench and sits down. “I hate you all. This is weird and slightly gross since you know Thalia is my fucking sister.”

 

“Alright dude shouldn’t have made me do that dare. Just try not to you know, get a hard on from your sister.” Nico smirks.

 

“He fucking better not. Or I one will kill him, and two kill you next.” Thalia spits back, as she gets ready.

 

Nico plays Work by Rihanna, as Thalia starts the rest of the group is laughing and cheering.

 

“Yeah Sage.”

 

“Fuck off, it’s my sister.”

 

“How’s it going Thal?”

 

“This is one of the worst you guys have come up with.”

 

After a long 4 minutes the song was over.

 

“Okay Thalia, I’ll let you stop. It was quite funny though. Did any of you record that?”

 

“None of you better have. That was embarrassing.”

 

“Don’t worry Thalia I have it all on my phone. You can watch it later.” Evan grinned.

 

“Oh God”

 

“Oh and Sage how are you doing over there?” Nico smirked.

 

“Um yeah just uh fine.” Sage blushed.

 

“Do you need to go jump in the fountain?” Evan laughed.

 

“Fuck you. That was just weird as hell. You guys are sick.”

 

“Okay shut up, it’s my turn now. Alec truth or dare?” Thalia asked calmly.

 

“Um I know you guys are up to something whether I pick one or the other. So fine I pick dare.” Alec sighed defeated, knowing what was coming next.

 

“Great, it’s simple I dare you to kiss Finn. Just a simple kiss nothing else.”

 

“That’s it?  I thought it was going to be worse than that. Okay fine.”

 

Alec turns towards Finn who happened of course to be sitting next to him. He looks at Finn and they both lean in, and Alec quickly kisses him and sits back.

 

“Happy?” He asks the group.

 

They all nod like they know something.

 

“Let’s go back it’s starting to get cold” Zoe complained.

 

So they grabbed the blankets and started to make their way back towards Alec’s. The whole way back Alec couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss.

 

Maybe he didn’t want to kiss him. I mean do I like him like that? Isn’t it too soon for me, Brayden just died about a year ago. But there was something there, I could feel it. Is that what they all wanted was just a simple kiss and they knew I’d overthink everything? I mean they are my best friends and know me too well. I don’t know wh-

 

“Hey Alec are you okay? You seem quiet?” Zoe asked breaking his train of thought.

 

“Oh… yeah, I um I’m fine. Should we do a fire when we get back or just go back and sleep?”

 

“Well it is 2 in the morning. Maybe we should just go back and get in the tents for tonight, and then do the fire tomorrow. We can just talk, and tell stories or something.”

 

A few minutes later they arrive back at Alec’s and go into the back yard. They all set up the insides of the tents, and then they all go and sit inside the boy’s tent to talk.

 

“Since we just chilled out this year. I vote this summer after we graduate we do another campout before people leave for college. And we go do something like we did that time we went to Ikea before it closed and hid out. And then stayed there all night.” Sage said.

 

“Oh yeah I remember that. Didn’t we almost get caught by that security guard, and had to hid in a different display?” Zoe exclaimed.

 

“Yeah, and I remember Sage and Evan slept in those bunk beds in the children’s section.” Alec replied laughing.

 

“Hey the sheets were Marvel, so yeah of course I had to sleep on them.” Sage defended.

 

“This is some of the shit we do on these campouts. And last year we snuck into the aquarium that was pretty awesome. Although somehow we’ve never gotten caught.” Alec said to Finn filling him in.

 

After another hour the girls had gone to their tent, and the other three boys were asleep leaving Alec and Finn awake.

 

“So uh sorry about the truth or dare game at the park. I had no idea that they were planning on making us do that.” Alec said not looking at Finn.

 

“Don’t worry about it. It was nice, I didn’t mind.” Finn replied a faint smile on his lips.

 

“Oh, ok cool then.” Alec said, as the silence hung awkwardly in the air.

 

“So Alec, I uh should tell you something.”

 

“What is it” Alec said looking up finally.

 

“Well I uh actually was hoping that um something like that would uh happen tonight.” Finn replied nervously.

 

“Really? So am I the person that you are interested in?”

 

“Yeah Alec, I like you, but if you don’t feel that way then forget I said anything.” Finn said quickly.

 

“No don’t I like you too. But I’m just confused. I feel like it’s too soon, but I know at the same time he would want me to move on and be happy.”

 

“Well we don’t have to do anything right now. We can do whatever you feel comfortable with.”

 

“I want to take it slow for now, if we do date can we keep it between us for awhile? I’m just not ready for them to know just yet. I mean I’m sure they suspect something but maybe just us for a bit.” Alec said holding Finn’s gaze.

 

“Yeah that would be fine. Can I um. Can you close your eyes?” Finn stammered.

 

“Uh yeah sure.” Alec replied closing his eyes hoping for what was coming next.

 

Alec waited for a few moments before he felt a Finn shift forward, and then there was another pair of lips on his own. This kiss wasn’t like the last one, this one was slower, more passionate. It ended before Alec knew it, and he wished it hadn’t.

 

“That was um wow” Alec blushed as he opened his eyes, and was met by Finn’s light blue ones.

 

“Yeah wow. So I guess I should ask now. Aleczander will you be my boyfriend?” Finn said smiling.

 

“Yes” Alec replied leaning over and kissing Finn again.

 

They both lay under their blankets, and Alec laced their fingers together hidden under the blanket lest the others wake and see them, and both drifted off happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you guys liked that. Alec and Finn finally got together! I was going to make this chapter longer but decided to end it there, and put the next stuff as chapter 7. Which is not going to be as long. But it will be good, and surprising. Thank you to all who have been reading this. Means so much to me.
> 
> \- Emilee


	7. Chapter 7

“Wake the fuck up!” Zoe screamed.  Alec slowly opened his eyes, feeling a hand against his. He let go quickly, before looking around the tent.

 

He noticed that everyone else had left the tent and it was just Zoe, Finn and himself.

 

“Where did everyone else go?” He asked Zoe.

 

“They all went inside, it’s almost noon. I decided to come wake you up since you both were taking forever, and we all want to go somewhere.”

 

“Thanks a lot Zo. Couldn’t have yelled a little louder could you?”

 

“As nice as that would have been I’d rather not your whole neighborhood hate us more than they already do. Have a good night?” Zoe asks winking.

 

“I have no clue what you’re talking about,” Alec states feeling himself start to get warm.

 

“Right Alec, like we all didn’t notice how close the two of you are laying, when we woke up.”

 

“Don’t know what you mean. Now get out we will come join you all in a minute.”

 

“Fine” Zoe says smirking as she walks back towards the house.

 

“Hey wake up. Didn’t you hear Zoe screaming at us?” Alec says as he shakes Finn.

 

“Yeah, I did but I didn’t care.” Finn says slowly, and opens his eyes. “Good morning by the way.”

 

“Morning” Alec smiles and kisses him quickly. “Let’s go before they all come running in here.”

 

They stand and start to walk towards the house when the sliding door opens and everyone comes outside.

 

“Finally. If I didn’t see you breathing I thought, you might have died or something. You guys took long enough to wake up,” Nico states.

 

“Sorry guys, we were up talking, couldn’t sleep” Finn says not looking at anyone in particular.

 

“Oh just talking?” Sage smirks.

“Yeah Sage. Talking. Shut up so I can go inside to eat, and change.” Alec says moving past them into the house.

 

“Hey so what is planned for today” Alec asks once he comes back out a bit later.

 

“We were thinking about just going to hang out around town or go to a movie,” Thalia says grinning. “How does Don’t Breathe sound?”

 

“Yeah I’m up for it. What time?” Alec answers walking over to stand next to Finn and Evan.

 

“We were thinking about going to the 6:00,” Thalia replies.

 

“Sounds good” Alec says, aware that the rest of the group is noting how close he’s standing to Finn.

 

They all get in Evan’s truck with Zoe in the front and Thalia, Sage, and Nico in the back seat. Which left Finn and Alec in the cab; which Alec is sure they planned.

 

As they drive into town, Alec leans up against Finn noting that the others may be watching but doesn’t mind too much.

 

“Hey. Finally some time alone” Alec says looking over at him as the wind blows through their hair.

 

“Well sort of. They all are probably watching up making sure nothing happens.” Finn replies laughing.

 

“True but they can only assume that something happened or hope that something will happen. They don’t have to know anything yet.” Alec says discreetly lacing their fingers together where their friends wouldn’t be able to see, unless they looked directly down out the back window.

 

“It’s a little too quiet back there” Thalia says banging on the window.

 

“What do you think we would do? Make-out in the cab of the truck with all you watching?” Alec says turning his head to look at her.

 

“So there is something going on!” Zoe screams from the front. “I knew it!”

 

“Zo you can think whatever you want.” Alec says laughing.

 

“Ok than everyone in the truck believes that you two hooked up last night.” She smirks.

 

“Okay. Definitely did not hook-up in the tent last night. That’s disturbing that you all thought that.” Finn interjects.

 

“Never said it was in the tent” Nico grins.

 

“Okay you all are terrible” Finn says, shaking his head.

 

“So I don’t hear a denial” Sage says.

 

“Nothing happened last night, besides the kiss you guys dared us to do. Happy?” Alec glares back at all of them, turning around fully now and letting go of Finn’s hand.

 

“Fine. I believe you for now” Zoe says as the rest of the group smirks at him and Finn.

 

They all reach town finally, and head into the mall. First thing they do is go and finish off Sage’s dare.

 

As they waited for Sage and Evan since he went to make sure Sage wasn’t lying, they could just hear sage cussing loud enough for the people walking by the salon to look in and stare at them.

 

“Fuck me! This hurts!” They hear Sage scream. They all laugh waiting for him to return.

 

About 15 minutes later Evan and Sage emerge with Sage limping a bit.

 

“How was it Sage?” Finn asks laughing.

 

“Fuck you. That was the worst thing of my life. Even worse than growing up with Thalia as my twin.”

 

“Hey asshole. You weren’t all perfect either” Thalia interjects.

 

“Well you did win I suppose. I didn’t think you would actually go through with it.” Finn says grinning.

 

They wander around for a bit none of them deciding to buy anything. Just laughing and talking like a normal group of teenagers.

 

An hour later they are all seated in the coffee shop, Alec is watching his friends laugh and joke around with each other, reflecting on how much has happened over the past year. He takes a drink of his coffee while thinking about how not much has changed that his friends are still here and though Brayden is gone he has Finn-

 

“Alec.”

 

“Hey Alec.” He hears someone calling his name and notices a hand being waved in front of his face.

 

“What? Sorry.” Alec says startled.

 

“Just seeing if you guys were ready to go. The movie is going to start in a half hour. You okay?” Zoe says looking concerned.

 

“Yeah never better actually. Let’s go I’m ready to be fucking scared out of my mind.” He says.

 

“Fuck yeah! Let’s go bitches!” Zoe yells, earning her glares from the other customers.

 

“God Zoe be quiet. Everyone already hates it when we all come in this shop.” Nico laughs.

 

“Oh yeah I forgot. Sorry everyone. We’ll be leaving now.” She says to the rest of the people sitting in the café.

 

As they all walked a few people started cheering. Zoe turned around and flipped a few of them off, knowing those that did cheer, were kidding.

 

As they headed towards the theater, Finn and Alec fell in the back while the rest of the groups walked in front of them a little.

 

“So does this count as our first date?” Finn whispers in his ear.

 

“Not when all our friends will be there. Nice try.” Alec whispers back grinning.

 

“Hey what are you two talking about back there?” Sage grins turning his head to look at them.

 

“Nothing at all.” Alec snaps back.

 

“Hmm maybe one of us should be back there with them” Sage smirks.

 

 

“Fuck you Sage.”

 

“Just looking out for you” Sage replies giving him the kissy face.

 

“Sure. Like I’m going to believe that dude.”

 

“Got your best interests at heart”

 

“Fuck off.” Alec laughs

They reached the theater and all entered to buy their tickets, and then wait in line to get food.

 

They were still about 15 minutes early but the movie was newer so they went in to find seats. Lucky for them the theater wasn’t too full yet, so they chose seats in the back near the middle.

 

Finn, then Alec, Zoe, Sage, Nico, Evan, Thalia all filed into the seats. As they all sat down more people came into the theater. Finally the movie was about to start. As the theater dimmed their lights, Finn took Alec’s hand into his, and slotted their fingers together with the arm rest between them raised, he put their entwined hands on the space between the seats.

 

Alec smiles, which Zoe notices. “What are you smiling about?” She asks suspiciously.

 

“Nothing just happy to be here with you all.” He answers a little to quickly.

 

“It has nothing to do with the fact that you somehow ended up next to Finn?”

 

“None at all.” He answers aware that Finn is probably listening to this conversation as well as Sage.

 

“okay,” She says with a knowing smile on her face.

 

The come out of the movie a couple of hours later, it was still sunny outside since the sun set around nine.

 

“That was fucking scary!” Thalia exclaims.

 

“I loved it.” Nico states.

 

“You loved watching that? Why?”

 

“Because it was cool. I mean did you see the way the old guy just shot the first dude. Plus I like the suspense.”

 

“You are so weird Nico.”

 

“I know. I have a weird sense of humor.”

 

“Hey do you guys want to head over to the park?” Alec asks the group.

 

“Yeah sure. Let’s go get ice cream first though!” Zoe yells.

 

“Yeah sure, let’s go.”

 

They all head to the ice cream shop a few blocks from the park. Once they all get their cones they start to head in the direction of the park.

 

Once there they go sit under the tree and watch the kids playing. Once everyone was done the sun was starting to go down. They sat a little longer watching the sunset go down on the hills behind the town.

 

Once the sun had gone down they ran over to the play set and Alec immediately goes to the swing.

 

“Someone come push me!” He yells out.

 

“Push yourself” Zoe yells from the next swing.

 

“Fine bitch.”

 

“Fucker”

 

“Finn come push me!”

 

Finn walks over from where he was sitting and starts to push Alec, and then decides he might as well push Zoe too, fearing she might hit him.

 

“Thank Finn. Look at that Alec your boyfriend is nicer than you!”

 

“Never said I was nice, and he isn’t my boyfriend.”

 

“Yeah whatever”

 

After swinging and running around for another two hours, they were all ready to head back to Alec’s and hang out.

 

They gathered up their coats and started to walk in a line.

 

As they all were walking away, a voice rings out breaking the silence.

 

“Well, well if it isn’t Finny boy.”

 

They all stop, as Finn turns around Alec notices the color drained from his face.

 

“Finn what do they want” Alec hears someone say, but can’t make out who.

 

Finn can’t speak. “Oh these must be your new friends Finn. So lovely, such a shame.”

 

“H- how did you find me?”

 

“Well Finny after you got away last year I started thinking. Who could this kid be. He managed to escape me, and then after the trial he disappeared. So I did some digging. I found your mom’s old work place and found out that she quit her job. I found out that you moved by checking your school records, and saw the new school you were attending.”

 

“You were at the trial?” Finn chokes out.

 

Alec notices the rest of his friends look confused but he knows what going on, they found him. Somehow those people from that gang found him, and now all of them.

 

“Of course I was at the trial. I figured the boy that was with, what was his name? Oh right Aidan, would be at the trial. I needed to get a better look at his face.”

 

“What do you want?”

 

“Well we want you of course. Oh sorry so rude of me. These are a couple of my friends. You see they weren’t there that night, off doing another job. But I became leader after the rest were taken away, and we’re the last of the crew.”

 

“You won’t get away with this.” Finn said shakily.

 

Alec noticed that he was trying to play it off for the rest of them, so that they didn’t get too freaked out, and they might all make it out of this alive.

 

“We’ll see about that won’t we.” The guy said as he and his friends withdrew something from their coats.

 

Alec saw that they were guns. He started to freak out. He looked around and saw the same look on everyone’s face matched his own.

 

“Run you guys. Try to make it back to the house. I’ll catch up, call someone as soon as you can!” Finn screamed at them.

 

Alec turned and started to run, hoping that the rest were following, Thalia somehow was in front of him.

 

As he turned to look back to check if everyone else was alright, gunshots filled the quiet summer night.


	8. Chapter 8

As the gunshots go off, he sprints like hell after Thalia. He wants to go back so bad to see what’s happening but he knows if he does he won’t make it out alive. All he hears is screams and gunshots fill the air. All he knows is Thalia is safe, but he doesn’t know if anyone else had made it to safety or not. He was freaking out, and all he wanted was to know what was going on. The gunshots had stopped, but so had the screams.

 

Time passes, Alec isn’t sure how much time in this moment it could have been seconds, minutes, or hours, the sound of sirens fill the air. Alec checks his phone it’s only been a few minutes. They wait a few minutes longer, before coming out of their hiding spots. As they round the corner of the building they see the cops cuffing three guys and stuffing them into the back of a couple of cars. But that’s not all they notice; as they look around for their friends, they see three bodies lying on the ground, but can’t tell who they are.

 

No this can’t be happening. Not again. He can’t lose anyone else. They run over to where the bodies are, but before they reach them, the paramedics are placing sheets over the bodies, letting Alec and Thalia know that the three people under those sheets are gone.

 

As they reach the first body they hear a paramedic say “Sorry kids but you can’t come over here yet. We need to identify them and call their parents.”

 

“Those are our friends; we were here when this happened. We need to see who is under those sheets” Alec said as calmly as he could.

 

“Please, my brother could be under one of those sheets.” Thalia replies as she starts crying.

 

“Ok kids.I’m not supposed to do this but, I’ll let you look. But you both will need to give your statements to the police over there once you are done. And I’m very sorry for your loss.” He said as he walked away.

 

Tentatively they pulled back the sheet covering the first body. As they pull it back, they see the face of Evan.

 

“Oh no. Evan.” Thalia cries.

 

“Evan.” Alec chokes out.

 

They both hold each other starting to feel numb as they try to process the events that happened just minutes prior. Alec can feel the tears starting to run down his face. He looks over and sees that Thalia is barely being able to hold herself together. He leans down and grabs Evan’s hand, noticing the body still warm, before they slowly move over to where the second body lay.

 

As they raise the sheet on the second body, Thalia gives an ear piercing scream, Alec doesn’t need to look to know who is under it. As he looks down at the broken face of one of his closest friend he and Thalia sink to the ground. Alec hugs her tight as she screams, this is her best friend after all. He knows the pain that she is feeling right now. He lets her go so that she can hold her brother again.

 

“Thalia, I’m so sorry. This is my fault. We went to the salon and made him get that wax today. He wasn’t able to run as fast.” Alec cries as he takes one of her hands.

 

“No Alec it wasn’t your fault don’t think that. We all had him go in and get waxed, fo his dare. And he wanted to, to prove that he wasn’t afraid.” Thalia said squeezing his hand for comfort.

 

He squeezes her hand back, before standing, and leaving Thalia to hold onto her twin, he moves over to the last body, and pulls the sheet down.

 

He lets out a strangled cry as he stares down into the face of his best friend. His rock, his best friend through everything that’s happened this year. Now he’s completely numb. He can’t feel anything, it’s all too much, as he sinks beside Zoe’s body. He feels sick as he stares at her face, noting all the blood. He sits there sobbing, and takes her lifeless hand in his. His best friend, never being able to hear her laugh, or speak again. Not being able to see her smile ever again. The only person besides his parents that has been constant in his life, gone just like that.

 

He wasn’t able to say goodbye to any of them, they were all gone in a blink of an eye. Something he never would have imagined, losing three of his best friends all in a single night.

 

 Not sure how much time has passed, as he sits there weeping over his lost friends, He feels a hand on his shoulder. Looking up hoping that it’s Finn, he’s disappointed when he sees that it’s a police officer.

 

“Sorry kid, but we need you to come with us to get your statements. Your parents are all on their way.” He says kindly as he waits for him to stand.

 

Reluctantly leaving his friends he takes Thalia’s hand for support before they follow the cop to his car, and as they look back to where their friends lay the sheets are being pulled back over their bodies.

 

As they are both finishing their statements they see cars pulling up to the scene and their parents, and the siblings getting out of their cars, and head straight for the police chief to find out what happened.

 

Alec and Thalia run over to their parents and hug them tight. Alec desperately wants to know what’s happened to Finn, and Nico, since they haven’t seen them since they came back to the scene.

 

Alec hears Zoe, Evan, and Sage’s parents scream as they find out that their children are gone. As well as the cries of all their siblings. Thalia takes hold of her mom’s hand as tears run down both their faces.

 

Alec stands between his mom and dad, he can’t think straight, he hasn’t felt this way since the night he lost Brayden. Before the world goes silent and fuzzy he vaguely hears the paramedics say that Nico has a broken arm, but Finn is in critical condition. The bullet just missed his heart and the major arteries, and both are on their way to hospital.

 

It’s all gotten too much as Alec falls to the ground, as a new wave of sorrow hits him. Thick hot tears streaming down his face, as he realizes that he might lose another friend, and one of the only people that has made him feel truly happy since Brayden. He can’t take any more tonight. He had just lost three of his closest friends, and if he loses Finn too. He doesn’t know what to do.

 

As the night wears on slowly, Alec, his parents along with Finn and Nico’s families all wait at the hospital, waiting for news, and for Nico to be released, all that is known is that they took Finn straight to surgery as soon as he arrived.

 

Everyone keeps asking him what happened, but he can’t speak. It doesn’t feel real yet. The thought of Zoe, Evan, and Sage all gone. It’s unthinkable, even seeing the bodies, it’s not real. They aren’t really gone. They’re all going to come walking through that door laughing like nothing happened. They were all hanging out, and laughing just a few hours ago. How did this night go from one of the best since the night he lost Brayden to the one of the worst in his life? This night is a close second to that fateful night all those months ago.

 

As the clock hits 3:00, Alec is starting to fall asleep from exhaustion, he hears footsteps, and then a voice saying that Nico is being released. He sits up and waits for his friend to walk down that hallway and through the doors to where he and their families are waiting.

 

As Nico finally comes through the doors, Alec waits so he can hug his brother and parents first. Then Nico turns to him slowly, Alec rushes over and hugs him tight, being careful of his arm, before sitting down on a bench, and taking his friend’s good hand in his. The rest of their families going to sit somewhere else to give them space.

 

“What happened to you and Thalia?” Nico asks with concern and fear in his eyes.

 

“We were able to get away and hide. What happened to you?” Alec replies with tears running down his face, anxious to tell his friend what has happened.

 

“I ran and heard the shots, and when I looked back I saw Finn, Zoe, Sage, and Evan all lying on the group. I guess they weren’t too worried about me, so they let me go. I ended up tripping on my way to a hiding spot. How are they all?”

 

“F- Finn is in critical condition and the other th- thr- three are dead” He says as he squeezes Nico’s hand, crying hard.

 

“W- what. Th-they’re all g-gone? I. Fuck. No. I. Fuck. Th-this is not happening.” He hiccups as tears start to fall.

 

“I’m so thankful you and Thalia are okay. I can’t imagine if you two were gone as well. I’m so sorry Neeks. I know how close you were to Sage and Evan. Especially after I just checked out this last year. I’m so sorry about that. When I needed all of you most, I just disappeared.”

 

“Yeah A, about Zo too. I know she was the one holding you together this year. None of us blame you for cutting us out like that. You needed space after something like that. We were worried about you, but we understood. But there is something you should know.” Nico says with tears still running down his face.

 

“What is it Neeks?”

 

“Sage and I were together.”

 

“Nico. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know-” Alec says as a fresh wave of tears start to fall.

 

“I know we had kept it from all of you, Thalia included. Just our parent’s and my brother knew. It’d only been over the last 6 months, but we just wanted it to be us for awhile, especially after seeing how torn up you were after B.”

 

“Thanks. But you didn’t have to, but I understand wanting space with a new relationship. I love you Nico. You are one of my best friends, you know that. You should head over there. I’ll be okay here. Promise. Text Thalia and let her know you’re going over, and what went on with you and Sage.”

 

“I will. Thank you Alec. Love you too. You sure you’re going to be okay?”

 

“Yeah I’ll be fine. I’ll keep you and Thalia updated on how he is doing once we find out anything. Are you going to be okay?”

 

“Not for awhile. I know now how bad you were hurting last year. You do know that Brayden wanted you happy. That’s all he wanted for you after he passed. He told us that all he wanted was for you to be able to move on and be happy. He told us while you were gone one day. And to make sure that we all did our best to get you to move on. I know you feel like it’s too soon, but you know that he would be fine, and happy that you want to be with Finn.”

 

“I. Wait. H- How did you know?”

 

“Alec, you two weren’t as clever as you think you were. What do you think that dare was for? Plus, you never know who is still awake and listening at night.” Nico tells him with a small wink.

 

Alec hugs Nico tight before letting go, both still crying softly, but he knows that Nico needs to go, so that he can go find Thalia and her family. As Nico leaves with his parents and little brother under his good arm, Alec goes back to sit with his parents, and Finn’s mom and twin siblings to wait for any news on Finn’s condition.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Don't hate me! I had to do this! I'm going to miss them all! and don't worry too much about Finn!  
> -E


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey all. Sorry for that last chapter! I know it pained me to kill over those characters. I loved them!! Here's this chapter. It's quite a bit shorter. Hope you like it!

As Alec stares at his reflection seeing the bags under his eyes. He hasn’t gotten much sleep lately. He checks his wrists again making sure to hide the marks that are peeking out from under the many bracelets that surround his arm. He hadn’t cut for weeks; he had been happy for the first time in a long time. He was glad he had his friends back again, and now they had been ripped away from him in the blink of an eye. It had been two weeks since that night, Finn had been released a few days ago and the four of them had spent as much time together as they could.

 

The funerals were all this weekend. He wasn’t sure how they were going to be. He hadn’t been able to cry since that night, now he just felt empty. Sure he had Nico, Thalia and Finn; but it wasn’t the same with sweet quiet Evan, Sage and his jokes, and Zoe. God Zoe he missed her so much, he missed her sass and how she wouldn’t take shit from anyone. He can’t banter like they did with anyone else, it doesn’t feel right.

 

Going back to school this week was rough. Yeah all the teachers understood and gave him a pass on the assignments-like he could even focus on school right now- but it’s like last year all over again but worse. Everyone giving him the same look. No matter where he goes, it’s all he sees. Yeah their group was one of the more well known groups of people within the school; small school how could they not have been, but now its just been Nico, Thalia and himself since Finn wasn’t cleared to return still.

 

He can’t even imagine what Thalia’s been going through. Her brother and best friend, her other half essentially, and Nico. Alec knew how he felt somewhat but he has to imagine it was worse than he thought. At least for Alec he knew that Brayden had had a limited number of days while for Nico it had all happened so fast.

 

They all hadn’t talked about it a whole lot, everyone was in their own state of shock and grief, just more if they were alright, and how things were at home. It was a lot to handle three of their best friends gone all in one night. Alec finished getting ready, and headed downstairs.

 

“Morning kiddo, how are you doing?” His mom greeted him smiling.

 

“Morning mom, dad. Fine mom, same as the other mornings you’ve asked.” He replied as he grabbed a muffin.

 

“Aren’t you going to sit down and eat?” His dad asked.

 

“Nah, I’m going to head to school early. Nico, Thalia, and I were all going to meet up before first period. I’ll see you tonight.” He said as he sticks his headphones in and walks out the door.

 

His parents have been more over bearing than the last year, as expected as he could have died. It’s been a bit annoying but he appreciates them for it, he knows they care at least.

 

The walk to school feels slower than usual. He’d started to take the long way again though. He can’t walk past that place anymore. He doesn’t think that he’ll ever go back to that park. There have been too many memories good and bad, but the bad cancel all the good times that took place.

 

He reaches the school final at a quarter past seven. He’s a little early, he told Thalia and Nico seven thirty. He sat on the picnic table in the front, watching all the other students arrive, but not really paying any attention. Next thing he sees is Nico sitting beside him and Thalia walking over towards them.

 

“Hey Alec, Nico” she says as she reaches the table.

 

“Hey Thalia. How was everything last night?” Alec asks her.

 

“Same as usual. Mom’s beencrying each time someone mentions him. The funeral tomorrow is going to be the worst. How about you guys?”

 

“Ok, mom and dad have been more over bearing, and all but not too bad I suppose.” Alec replies, as he subconsciously plays with the bracelets on his wrist.

 

“Not terrible. It’s been hard obviously. But Zander has been a huge help in distracting me.” Nico shrugs.

 

“That’s nice though. Yeah Ashley came home as soon as she heard and has been helping mom plan it. She’s been getting me out and we’ve been doing stuff lately too, in the time that I’m not with you guys.”

 

“That’s good though. I wish I had siblings to hang out with sometimes. I’ve just been drawing a lot lately. More than usual.”

 

“Yeah but you have Finn to hang out with” Thalia smirks. “Shit sorry Nico.” She quickly says seeing the look on Nico’s face.

 

“No it’s okay. I-I’ll be okay. I mean it’s hard, but no Alec it’s true. You have Finn to hang out with.”

 

“Yeah but so do you guys. We’re all still going over there after school right?”

 

“Yeah still works for me. I’d rather not go home to mom,” Thalia replies with a slight smile.

 

“Yeah me too. It’ll be fun,” Nico agrees.

They all stand as the bell rings, and head to their lockers. As they walk to their lockers, they can still feel everyone looking at them as they walk down the hall, and even more as they grab all their books and head to class. Alec notices that groups of people will move out of the way when they see the trio passing by.

 

Thalia goes off to her class, while Nico and Alec head to theirs. They switched their seating around so that Nico is no next to Alec, and Finn’s desk is still open in front of him.

 

As the classes pass by, Alec barely pays attention and the teacher’s don’t call on him anymore anyways. They all treat him the same as the rest of his peers. Like he’s delicate and will break apart any minute. How could he blame them really? He lost his boyfriend last year and now three of his best friends this year.

 

Finally, lunch rolls around, he heads to his locker and sticks his books in it and heads to the cafeteria to their table, and sits down. They kept their table even though it isn’t the same without everyone there. He could tell that when they came back the week before no one had dared to sit at the table. It had that feeling of other people knowing their place, and not daring to sit there.

 

Nico and Thalia join him shortly after he arrives, and sits on either side of him. He can feel everyone’s eyes on the three of them as they eat. He hates the feeling of people watching him, always had.

 

“I’m sick of people staring at us like we’re the most fascinating thing they’ve ever seen. I had enough of that last year, and being treated like we’re bombs that are going to go off with any given mention of them,” Alec growls.

 

“I know Alec. But what can we do? They’re going to do what they want,” Thalia replies.

 

“Yeah well I’m tired of it. It’s been 4 days since we got back. Thought people would have better shit to look at and talk about by now,” He says, glaring at the table across from them.

 

“Dude, we know. The teachers too. They don’t know how to handle us anymore. We can’t do anything about them,” Nico urges him.

 

“Yeah well I can,” Alec says as he stands up.

 

“Alec no! Sit down right now,” Thalia hisses.

 

“No Thalia. I’m tired of this, they can all go back to minding their own damn business.” He snaps back, now standing on the bench.

 

“Hey everyone. Since you’re all staring at us anyways, I just wanted to let you know that you can stop staring at us like we’re freaks. Oh and stop talking about us. Obviously we know that you all are, as you go silent as soon as any of us walk near you. It’s been four days since we got back and two weeks since it happened. See you all at the funerals and then you all can go back to minding your own problems and whatever new gossip that’s going on around here, like whoever the new pregnant person is. Cause I know that’s all you people care about anyways. So go back to eating your food and stop treating us like we’re delicate and you have to tiptoe around us. Thanks see you all tomorrow,” Alec sits back down and sighs.

 

“A, that was a bit much don’t you think?” Thalia exclaims.

 

“Nope they all needed to hear it. And since when do I have a filter? Just be happy I didn’t swear. Pretty sure no matter how much the teacher’s feel bad for us, I wouldn’t have gotten away with that.”

 

“Well at least they’ve all stopped staring. Guess your little speech worked. Wonder how many are going to show up at the funerals.” Nico grins.

 

“Probably most of the school. I mean we are one of the more well known groups of students, at least upper classmen. I’m sure a lot of people will show up, even those that didn’t’ really know them, just to say they were there, or cause everyone else is going.” Alec frowns.

 

“Alec isn’t that a bit harsh?” Thalia replies.

 

“Not at all. I mean isn’t that what people tend to do. Go to things because other people are, even funerals.”

 

“Yeah I suppose you’re right. It’s going to be a long weekend.”

 

“Got that right,” agreed the boys.

 

The bell rings signaling end of lunch, interrupting the conversation.

 

“Hey meet at the lockers after class and we can all head over to Finn’s together okay?” Alec says as they separate to go back to class.

 

The rest of the day passed just as slow as the first half, art was his only class he really put any effort into. He had spent the period on a drawing that he’d been working on since he woke up at home that next day after they had heard that Finn was going to recover with no problems.

 

He went to his locker the second he heard the bell ring once he had packed up his drawing supplies into his bag. He was met there by the other two and they headed for the lot, to where Nico’s car was. They all got in and drove over Finn’s house, where upon knocking at the door were greeted by his mom. She let them know that Finn was in the living room, before walking out the door to pick up the twins.

 

“Hey guys, didn’t know you were coming over today,” Finn says surprised when he sees them enter the room.

 

“Yeah we had planned it yesterday,” Alec said sitting on the couch next to Finn.

 

“Yeah, figured I needed a break from home,” Thalia grinned sitting next to him.

 

“Yeah me too, only so much I can take of my parents asking if I’m okay all the time and playing with Zander. I love the kid, but he gets annoying after awhile.” Nico laughs taking the spot next to Thalia.

 

“Glad you guys came over. I’ve been so bored today. I can only play video games so much before I start to wish I was doing something else.” Finns smiles.

 

“I can put a movie on or something” Alec asks the group.

 

“Yeah put on Lilo and Stitch. I need something cute after these last few weeks.” Nico grins.

 

Alec goes and put on Lilo as Stich before coming back over to his spot on the couch and laces his and Finn’s fingers together. As the movie starts he leans his head against Finn’s shoulder smiling. This is just a normal day, the four of us hanging out, nothing is wrong. The other three are at practices and meetings.

 

About halfway through the movie Sherri and the twins come back. The twins are loud, until he faintly hears Sherri telling them to be quiet, and they can either go watch the rest of the movie or go up to their rooms. He looks over and notices that the other three had fallen asleep. He smiles and leans his head back against Finn’s shoulder and feels himself drifting off.

 

He opens his eyes slowly after being shaken lightly, he looks around dazed for a moment before remembering he’s at Finns’.

 

“Hey it’s 5:00. Nico and Thalia were getting ready to leave, figured I should wake you up.” Finns smiles over at him.

 

“Thanks.”

 

Nico and Thalia were standing over by the door talking to Sherri as they were waiting for him to go.

 

“Do you want us to drive you home Alec?” Nico asks, “I need to get home before my parents and Zander start worrying too much.”

“No. thanks though, I’ll have my dad come get me in a little bit. I’ll see you guys tomorrow,” Alec grins at them.

 

“Okay. See you tomorrow,” They both reply as they leave.

 

“You didn’t have to stay for me,” Finns tell him.

 

“I know. I wanted to, we didn’t really get to do much today since we both fell asleep anyways,” Alec replies.

 

“Thanks, how was it today?”

 

“Boring as usual. I did kind of tell everyone to leave us alone though at lunch.”

 

“Alec. Why?”

 

“I was sick and tired of everyone staring at us and treating us like we were breakable.”

 

“Yep that’s so you.”

 

“Well you should have known what you were getting into after that first day in class,” Alec smirks, and leans forward to kiss him.

 

“I guess I should have. I’d get stuck with the guy that doesn’t seem to have a strong filter.”

 

“Hey! At least I didn’t swear. I don’t think that would have gotten me anywhere with the teachers.”

 

“Well that’s good then isn’t it. Don’t need you getting into trouble your first week back.”

 

“Yeah I definitely don’t need to get in any more trouble. Of course they would cut me some slack but probably not much.”

 

“Has everything else been good?”

 

“Yeah why?” He fidgets playing with one of the bracelets.

 

“Just wondering. I noticed you had your bracelets on again.”

 

“I-yeah it’s not too bad I promise.” He looks down.

 

“Alec. Look at me. It’s okay. I get it, but talk to me if you need to okay. You can call me whenever you want.”

“Well obviously. I mean you are my boyfriend. I would hope I can call you whenever I feel like it.”

 

“Alec. Not what I meant, and you know it. Please just talk to me if you need to, whenever you feel the need to grab the razor call me okay?”

 

“Yeah. I’ll try. No promises. But I will try.”

 

“Thank you.” Finns kisses his cheek.

 

“It’s almost 5:30 do you want to stay for dinner?”

 

“No. That’s okay. I should text my dad and have him come get me. I know they wanted me home tonight since this weekend is going to be really busy and we’re all going to be with each other the whole time. They wanted a night of just us. Thank you though.” He smiles, texting his dad to come get him.

 

“Okay sounds good to me.”

 

Alec laces their fingers together again and leans his head on Finns shoulder again. They stay like that until Alec feels his phone vibrate, letting him know that his dad was there.

 

Alec stands up, helps Finn stand with him. They head over to the door, and Alec gets his shoes on.

 

“I’ll see you tomorrow. Bright and early. I can’t believe there’s going to be two of them tomorrow; Sage and Zoe, then Evan’s on Sunday.” Alec says pulling on his jacket.

 

“I know. It’s going to be a hard and long weekend. I’ll see you tomorrow at the church.”

 

Alec hugs Finn tight, before kissing him. “Thank you Finn, for everything.”

 

“Of course love.” Finn replies, and kisses him back quickly, before opening the door.

 

Alec walks out to his dad’s car and gets in, waving at Finn as they drive home. He says hi to his dad and lets him know how the day went, before sitting back in the seat, and thinking of the sorrow that the next couple of days will bring.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The funerals will be in the next chapter! I didn't have the energy to write it this time! I know the updates have been so random. I've been busy with school, and starting to apply to grad schools. It's been a bit stressful! But for those that have been reading, and made it this far thank you so so so much! It means so much to me that people are actually reading what I write! Hope you love it! Bring tissues for the next chapter. Hope I have it out soon, but It might not be until after christmas! I'll try to find some time in between studying and filling out applications! 
> 
> -Em


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi!! Sorry it took so long to post! I had been busy with the holidays, and then I was filling out grad school applications! This chapter is going to start as Alec, and then will switch to Nico's and finish in his. This will be the only chapter that I will write in Nico's POV.

Alec rolls over as the alarm blares. Looking around he remembers what day it is, the funerals. Shit, he turns off the alarm, seeing that it’s 8:00, he needs to get ready, Sage’s funeral starts at 10, and he planned on getting there early to meet up with Thalia and Nico.

 

He gets up and makes his way to the bathroom. Once he’s standing under the scalding water the feelings of guilt and sorrow wash over him. It’s all hitting him over and over, the sounds gunshots and screaming filling that once quiet night. He hears their screams every night in his dreams. Now standing under the water it all comes back to him. He can’t make the memories of that night go away no matter how hard he tries.

 

Reaching up to grab his razor he holds it about to run it over his skin when he hesitates. He hears Finn’s voice telling him to call him if he needed to, he hears his own promise that night in his living room telling Finn that he’ll try to stop. As he much as he wants to keep that promise all those feelings all come rushing back at him. Before he can put the razor down, he slides the blade across his wrist. As he feels all that guilt, and sadness rush out of him, he looks down watching the blood run down his hand and get washed down the drain. He drops the razor, and slides down to the floor of the shower.

 

He sits with his knees tucked against his chest feeling the water hit his body. After what feels like hours he stands back up and finishes washing his hair and body. Wrapping a towel around his waist he starts walking back to his room, but is stopped by his dad.

 

“Morning Alec,” he greets his son.

 

“Morning,” Alec replies, quickly walking into his room and closing the door.

 

He quickly gets ready putting on his black skinnies, and a dark blue button up. He checks himself in the mirror making sure everything looks good before placing his bracelets back on his wrist and heading back into the bathroom to finish getting ready.

 

He heads downstairs fifteen minutes later to find his parents sitting at the table waiting for him with breakfast on the table. He doesn’t feel hungry, he just wants this day to end, and not have to sit through two of his best friend’s funerals, it’s just a lot in a single day.

 

“Good morning sweetheart. Sit down and eat something before we leave,” his mom says smiling over at him.

 

“I’m not that hungry. Thanks though, I’ll just have some coffee, then we can go.” Alec replies, as he heads to the pot to pour himself a cup.

 

“Alec, you need to eat at least something,” she argues.

 

“Mom, I’m fine. This day is going to be hard enough without you nagging me about eating, when I don’t want to,” He retorts before grabbing his cup and starts to go to his room realizing he left his phone there.

 

“Alec, apologize to your mother now,” he hears his dad call after him.

 

“No, it’s fine. I know he’s under a lot of stress today. He didn’t mean it. We just need to support him today and give him some space,” he hears his mother say before he closes the door to his room.

 

He checks the time, it’s 9:00 he takes a few deep breathes before heading back downstairs. Not the last time he’s going to need to breathe, it’s going to be a long day.

 

“Sorry for snapping mom.” He says as he gives her a hug.

 

“Thank you darling, it’s okay though I know how hard today is going to be for you. Are you ready to go?” She notices his bracelets but doesn’t say anything as she returns the hug smiling.

 

“Yeah let’s go, I wanted to meet up with Nico, Thalia, and Finn before it started, since this is going to be especially hard on Thalia and Nico,” He says as he starts to walk towards the door.

 

They arrive at the church where Ms. Jackson had insisted on holding Sage’s funeral. Alec walks in scanning the room for Nico or Thalia, before spotting them both sitting in the front pew, Thalia was resting her head on Nico’s shoulder.

 

 “Hey guys.” He says sitting by Thalia, taking her hand in his.

 

“Hey Alec, thanks for coming early. Nico arrived just a little while ago too. Today’s going to be hard isn’t it. I haven’t been able to get that night out of my head. Whenever I close my eyes that’s all I see, and I can hear the gunshots so clearly in my head,” Thalia whispers sitting back up as tears are running down her face.

 

“I know me too. I just remember running blindly hoping that everyone is close behind me, and feeling the dread when I hear the first shot go off. Feeling relieved that you were next to me, but so scared that no one else had joined us. Those few minutes felt like they lasted forever.” Alec says as his voice starts to crack. He can feel his eyes getting hot, as the tears threaten to fall. “ N-nico I’m so sorry. If I would have known sooner, I-i-I could have don-” he starts, and gets cut off quickly.

 

“Alec, shut up for a second and listen. There wasn’t anything you could have done. There wasn’t anything that any of us could have done. No, you didn’t know, no one did. That’s how we wanted it. The time that I did have with him both as my best friend, and boyfriend isn’t something that I’m going to forget. These past few months have been the happiest time in my life, and that’s thanks to him, but also to all of you guys. Yes, this situation sucks, but I’ll be okay eventually. For now, I have you two, Finn, and my family. It’s the best thing I could ask for as a support system.” Nico states as calmly as he can.

 

All Alec can do is stare at his friend and nod, he’s not sure what to say after that. After a few moments he lets go of Thalia’s hand and goes to give Nico a hug.

 

“Love you Nico,” He says holding his friend tightly. “You too Thalia,” he adds and wraps one of his arms around her to pull her in.

 

They sit there for awhile with their arms around each other tears are running down all of their faces. They break apart as people start to come and fill in the seats around the church.

 

Alec stands with his friends as people come over to them saying how sorry they are and how Sage was such a good kid, and blah blah blah. It’s all Alec can do to not scream. These people didn’t even care about him when he was alive what was the difference now that he was gone. He can’t imagine how Thalia and Nico are feeling if he’s feeling like this.

 

Finally, Alec sees Finn and his family walk in. He walks over to greet them, “Hi, Ms. Rivers, Asher, Avery, Finn. How are you all?”

 

“We’re good, thank you Alec. Please call me Sherri. Are you okay, or as much as you can be on a day like today?”

 

“Yeah it’s been hard but I’m doing better now. Do you mind if I steal Finn?”

 

“No, not at all. I’ll go find us some seats. Asher, Avery come along,” Sherri replies, walking away with the twins to find their seats.

 

“Glad you’re feeling better, and moving around more.” Alec tell his boyfriend while giving him a hug.

 

“Me too. I’ve been so bored, mom put me on house arrest until today so I could be rested enough for today.”

 

“I couldn’t imagine. At least you haven’t had to go to school and have everyone staring at you. It’s been hell. It’s like last year all over again but somehow worse,” Alec replies as he leads them up the aisle to join Nico and Thalia again.

“Hey Finn, glad you’re here,” Thalia says giving Finn a hug.

 

“I am too. I wouldn’t have missed today though for anything. I wanted to be here to support all of you guys today.” He replies, hugging her back.

 

“Should we all sit; I think it’s about to start” Alec interjects.

 

They all sit in the front, Ms. Jackson, Ashley, on one side of Thalia and then Nico, Alec and Finn on the other side. Alec takes Finn’s hand and laces their fingers together while listening to the pastor talk about how wonderful Sage was, and that he’s in a better place now.

 

He can’t get the thought out of his head that today would have been another normal day with the seven of them hanging out and talking about what the plan was going to be for Halloween next week, but now the four of them are sitting at a funeral for their best friend, because he decided that he wanted to go to the park that night, and he pushed Sage into getting waxed for that dare. If he hadn’t then things might have been different, Sage might still be here, he would have been able to run. He can feel himself getting angry as the guilt starts to rise, and he tries to push it back down but it’s getting harder and harder to repress it. He knows that it’s going to explode out of him eventually, and when it does he won’t be able to stop it.

 

He snaps out of it feeling Nico shaking next to him. He takes Nico’s hand as well and squeezes it, letting him know that he understands how hard this is, and that he’s here for him. He turns his attention back to the speaker, who is now quiet, as the opening chords of Amazing Grace start to play.

 

**Nico’s POV**

As if today wasn’t going to be hard enough he thought as he went to walk to the bathroom, then tripping and landing face first onto the hardwood floors. These past couple of weeks have been absolute hell.

 

They were able to get out of school for a week due to grieving, not that it really helped. No matter what he did he can’t stop thinking of that night. He’s sure it’s the same for the rest of his friends but he doesn’t remember most of it due to him being knocked out.

 

Whenever he closes his eyes, or is alone he can hear that first shot, then the screams ripping through the air. He can hear someone shouting at them to run, he ran and proceeded to fall hitting his head and knocking him out. The last thing he heard before he passed out was the sound of Sage screaming, and him being able to do nothing about it as he saw black.

 

When he woke up, he was in the back of an ambulance being looked at. He wanted out, he wanted to know where Sage, and everyone else was. While he was glad he was okay, it didn’t matter if the rest of his friends weren’t. He could hear Alec and Thalia begging to look under something. He wasn’t sure what they were talking about until he heard Thalia’s screams fill the air. He felt a chill as he knew, that he wouldn’t ever see Sage’s smile, hear him laugh, kiss him again. He had a feeling that something was wrong, but nothing could have prepared him for that. He let out his own scream, and though he was still dizzy he was trying to get out of that stupid ambulance. He needed to see him again at least one last time before they took him away.

 

Those scenes played over and over again. They wouldn’t stop it was taking everything he had to not make them go away. He tried to stay distracted by hanging out with Zander and his friends. While it helped for a little while it wasn’t long before those moments would flash through his head again. He had even taken to having Zander sleep in his rooms to hopefully make the nightmares go away. 

 

He’s numb. He can’t feel anything, or think straight. After picking himself back up off the floor he quickly got dressed. Today was the day of the funeral. It had been two weeks already without him, and it hadn’t gotten any easier. They hadn’t been together very long, but he now had some idea of what Alec felt last year after he lost Brayden. It hurts like hell, and it’s the worst pain imaginable, he doesn’t know how Alec did it. Yeah Alec had shut them out for a while but he can’t blame him for that. It’s all Nico can do to not run and hide from the world, especially today. Though no one but his friends and their families knew about them, it didn’t make it easier to handle.

 

He finishes getting ready before heading down the hall to the kitchen where Zander and his parents are waiting. They all head out to go to the church where the service was being held. It’s almost nine, the funeral doesn’t start until ten but he wanted to get there early to see Thalia and Alec beforehand.

 

The drive there is silent, he can tell that his parent’s don’t know what to say to him, he’d always stood apart from his family. His parents and little brother were all outgoing and energetic, while he was always off to the side silent and brooding. Even as a young child he had been moody, he hated talking to people and though he loves his family it extends to them sometimes as well. Zander was always the one to be wearing shorts, nice shirts, brighter colors, while he donned black skinny jeans, vans, band tees, or tees with anime, or harry potter, nerdy things on them, and his hair, his mom hated his long shaggy black hair.

 

They tried to spend time with him and he appreciate their efforts, they just didn’t know what to do. They would try to watch movies or TV shows that he liked to try to bond after that night, and to keep him distracted, but he could tell that they weren’t interested in that stuff, but he loved them for trying.

 

Finally, they had arrived at the church. He got out, and went in ahead of his family. Looking around for Thalia he spotted her near the front with her mom and Ashley. He made his way to the front to stand beside her, while waiting for her mom to finish talking to the pastor. The pastor walks away a few minutes later Thalia turns towards him surprising him as she wraps her arms around him.

 

“Nico!” She exclaims. “Thanks for coming early.”

 

“Yeah of course Thal, I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Hi Ashley, Ms. Jackson.” Nico replies and greets the other two, while returning the hug.

 

“Hello Nico, how are you? I know how hard this has been on you as well, I appreciate you being able to come early. And you know to call me Hannah. None of this Ms. Jackson stuff. You are practically family after all.” Hannah greets him, and pulls him in for a hug.

 

He returns the hug smiling, before Thalia pulls him away from her family to go sit on a pew.

 

They sit in silence, grasping each others hand. Nico glances over at her to see her staring off blankly her eyes shinning.

 

“Nico, even though I didn’t know about you guys until after all this, you are still family. You always had been but now it’s in a different way. Sage was always the outgoing one, and you’ve always been the moody and more mysterious one. You guys worked well together. This is coming from me as a friend, and Sage’s sister. He loved you, I know that I never saw you guys together or anything, but these past few months he was different. Happier if that was possible for him, now that I know why thank you for making him happy,” tears started to run down her face. “Shit I didn’t want to cry yet. N-Nico, you were his best friend, besides me of course- but I knew him better than anyone, and he will want you to move on eventually. He won’t want his death to stop you from finding your happiness. I could tell that he was happier, but you were too. You weren’t so dark, not that you were ever that much with all of us but in classes and everything you smiled more. I want to see you happy again too. Of course you will always be family, even after you find someone else. I-I love you Nico.” Thalia sobs.

 

Nico wraps his arms around her pulling her in, his vision blurring and his eyes filling with tears. They sit wrapped together for a minute before he sits back and Thalia lays her head on his shoulder.

 

A few moments later he hears Alec greet them, and sit on the other side of Thalia. He faintly hears them talking while his mind wanders. He’s snapped out of it when he hears Alec say his name and say he’s sorry and he should have done more.

 

He doesn’t really remember what he says next, just that he knows he told Alec to shut up, that it wasn’t his fault for what happened. The next thing he knows Alec is pulling him into a hug, and then Thalia and Alec telling them that he loves them both.

As the church starts to fill with people the three of them stand up, as people start to walk up to them. At this point Nico doesn’t even care, he doesn’t want to be there anymore. He’s tired of people telling him the same thing over and over. That they are sorry and everything about Sage being a great student, and shit that he knows they really don’t care about. Despite the fact that no one knows what really went on that night, and him and Sage. He’s learned to block everyone out and just stand there and smile slightly when people come talk to him, or try to hug him.

 

He hates funerals, they’re depressing and so many fake people. Everyone always says this is a time when people come together, and grow closer. But you know what he doesn’t think that’s true. He knows people only go to funerals because they feel bad or guilty about not spending more time or caring more about the dead person when they were alive and this is their way to relieve themselves of their guilty conscience.

 

He doesn’t need anyone else here but his friends and the families. That’s all that matters. It makes him angry seeing all these people who didn’t know Sage, but they showed up to offer their “support” to the family. If they cared so much where were they when Sage was alive. Not even just for Sage, but for Zoe and Evan too. Even with Brayden, these people didn’t matter to their group, they liked them sure, but they didn’t know them.

 

Nico knew that his group of friends were well known around school, just because some of them played sports or were in clubs or whatever. But these people only thought they knew them, but didn’t try to get to know them, and Nico didn’t want them too. He was happy with his group of friends, and that extended to Finn who they hadn’t known that long but he fit in with all of them, plus he was dating one of his best friends so there was that.

 

He blinked, looking around and seeing Alec and Finn making their way down the aisle towards him and Thalia. He hadn’t even realized Alec had left to go get Finn. Seeing them together made his heart ache for his boyfriend.

 

He was happy that Alec had moved on and found someone else. He had missed him while he was in his depressed mood and had cut them all out. He wanted his friend to be happy again, he deserved it. But that didn’t change the fact that it hurt to know that he wouldn’t be able to hold Sage’s hand again, or kiss him one last time, or even had the chance to say goodbye.

 

He was brought out of his thoughts as Thalia led him over to sit down in the front. He had Thalia on one side and Alec and Finn on the other. The pastor started by welcoming everyone, and talking about how strong the family was. As he droned on he tuned him out. he could feel Alec radiating anger.

 

That’s right Alec went through this with Brayden last year, his feelings were probably the same as he was feeling now. Angry that this guy up front could talk so casually about Sage, as if he wasn’t dead but just gone on a vacation. That all these people behind him weren’t here for Sage but for their own selfishness. He was the one that was hurting, he was the one who felt the guilt of that night. If only he hadn’t blacked out, he could have helped Sage. He was angry at himself that he hadn’t been able to see Sage. He’d been the one to trip and hit his head, leaving Sage on his own. If only he had been the one behind Sage, then Sage wouldn’t have been the one to die, he could have saved him. Sage had more going for him than he did, Sage had his sisters and his mother.

 

Nico would give anything to go back to that night to be the one to have died, so that Sage would have lived. Sage would have had a chance to live his life, he had so much he had wanted to do. High school, then he had wanted to go get a career as a doctor. While Nico he didn’t have any plans after high school. He didn’t know what he wanted. Sage could have found someone else. Nico doesn’t know if he will.

 

Sage was everything to him, from the time they were younger to now. He had liked Sage for so long, not believing that he would even look at Nico like that. Sage was the one who played soccer, and had had plenty of dates and had girls and boys all over him. Why would he have looked at his best friend the one who had black shaggy hair, wore black year round, and thought that he was the guy that he wanted to date.

 

He hadn’t wanted to mess up their friendship so he hid his feelings and tried dating other guys. Didn’t work obviously, after one particularly bad break-up Sage knew something was off. He’d asked Nico what happened, and he’d pushed him away. Sage didn’t give up though, Nico loved that about him.

 

Sage had kept pestering him about it, Nico had grabbed him and kissed him. He’d been horrified, he moved back quickly thinking that he’d ruined everything after so many years of being careful. He was surprised when Sage stepped towards him, which Nico then took another step back. They kept that on until he’d been pinned against a tree. Sage then had looked him in the eyes, smiled, grabbed the back of his neck and proceeded to smash his mouth against his.

 

That was a day that he wouldn’t ever forget no matter how much time had passed. He loved Sage, and always would. He knew that being here at the funeral was going to be hard, but he hadn’t comprehended the pain and anger that he would feel until now. He hated the fact that the majority of the people here didn’t care about Sage. The fact that they would never be able to walk around as a couple. He was mad at Sage for leaving him. At himself for not being able to say goodbye. The guy for taking Sage away from him so soon. It wasn’t fair, this wasn’t how their life was supposed to go.

 

He could feel the tears running down his face, he hadn’t realized he was crying and shaking until he felt Alec take his hand into his. He looked up and realized that Alec and Thalia were looking over at him both with tears in their eyes.

 

He was grateful for them. The four of them had been each other’s rock. He doesn’t know what he would have done if he hadn’t had them to lean on. He had cut, something that he hadn’t done for years, but he can’t imagine how much worse it would have been without his family, and his friends.

 

As he looks around he notices that the pastor was done talking. He’d missed the whole service, it was time to walk down the aisle and past all those people. He saw Alec, Finn, and Thalia waiting on him. He rose, taking his best friends’ hands in each of his the four of them with tears running down their faces stood tall and walked back down the aisle. Past all those fake-ass people, out into the afternoon where the clouds were threatening to release their water. They climbed into one of their families’ cars ready to be taken away, to go to the next sorrowful service that was awaiting them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I know this chapter was hopefully as sad as I think it is. I thought it was sad while I was writing it. I was originally going to put all the funerals into one chapter but I decided to split them into three chapters. 1. It was easier to write and deal with one funeral at a time. and 2. If I had put them all together it would have been a lot longer than I think anyone really wanted to read as a single chapter. Let me know what you all thought of it! Thank you to anyone who's been reading this since the beginning, anyone who has made it this far, or to anyone who is new and has read all of this. <3
> 
> Emilee


	11. Chapter 11

 

**Alec’s POV**

 

Thalia, Nico, Finn, and he were in the back of his parent’s car headed to Zoe’s funeral. He knew that today was going to be hard, and tiring, but he hadn’t realized just how draining emotionally it was going to be. Sage’s funeral was extremely difficult; he could imagine in some part how hard it must have been on Nico. Nico and Sage had always been close when they were younger, and their relationship being new in regards to dating is hard, especially when getting to know someone on a different level.

 

He hadn’t realized that he had been holding his breathe until he felt a hand on his leg. Looking over he saw the small smile that Finn was giving him.

 

Finn leaned over “I know how much Zoe meant to you, and how hard this is going to be. Remember that we are all here for you,” he said low enough only he could hear it.

 

Alec nodded and glanced over at Thalia and Nico. Nico was staring out the window, while Thalia was looking straight ahead with their hands clasped tightly together.

 

They finally made it to the cemetery where the funeral was being held. Alec stepped out of the car and suddenly felt as if he was going to throw up the bit that he had eaten that morning.

 

“Are you okay,” he heard Finn ask him as he felt him wrap an arm around his waist to support him. He nodded slightly before straightening up. They walked with Nico and Thalia to where Zoe’s parents and siblings stood.

 

They greeted Mr. and Mrs. Smith and then Carson and Luci, as they approached. Mrs. Smith, Amelia, had tears running down her face as she thanked them for everything they did for Zoe and how much they meant to her, and to the family, before hugging each of them in turn before turning back to clasp her husbands arm as the pastor started the introductions.

 

They stood close to Zoe’s family, listening somberly to the pastor talk about Zoe, and her family. About how much she meant to people, and the future that was stolen from her.

 

Alec stood there vaguely listening to what the pastor was saying, knowing it was the same bullshit that was spewed at Sage’s. The very cookie cutter funeral speech that was said over and over, mainly for the family. He knew the pastor, priest or whatever was there because they were getting paid and although they may have cared a little, it wasn’t like they didn’t do these types of things all the time, and had the same little speech ready for each, only changing a few details such as name, and pronouns for each.

 

He glanced around at the other people who had come, and saw a lot of classmates and other people that went to school with them. He saw people that Zoe was friends with, as well as many other people that were there he knew so that they could get brownie points and say that they had attended the funeral of someone that they went to school with. All in the back of course.

 

He knew that Sage, Zoe, and Evan were gone, but he kept wanting it to be a joke, for Zoe to open the lid of the coffin sit up and shout “You thought I was dead bitches. Like any of you people in the back cared about me before you thought I died. Well I’m not dead, just a little experiment to see who would show up. You all can go home, and continue to not be bothered with me anymore!”

 

He smiled at the thought. He could definitely see her doing something just like that to the shock of what everyone else would think. As much as he wanted that to happen he knew that was never going to be a possibility.

 

He was tired of the mask that he was wearing that everything was okay. That he wasn’t hurting, that he didn’t feel the weight of what happened on his shoulders. He was ready to let that go and move forward. He knew that after Evan’s funeral tomorrow their families were going to have a barbeque to get together and have be surrounded by their friends and have support through this emotion filled weekend.

 

Alec looked up as the pastor was finishing the final prayer, and announced that it was time to place the flowers and lower the coffin into the ground. As he watched his best friends and their families place their roses onto the coffin. He stepped forward and placed the last rose on the coffin.

 

He stood staring at the box where the body of his best friend would lay for eternity. As he stared at the coffin he closed his eyes. He felt the thick, hot, tears running down his face as he felt the weight being lifted off his shoulders. The weight of the guilt and pain that he had been suppressing of being the one to suggest going to the park that night, the screams he heard from his friends as he hid not being able to go and save them. The feeling of wishing that he had of wishing that he had been the one that had been hurt instead.

 

After what seemed like forever he faintly heard the pastor tell him to please step back, then felt a hand on his arm gently pulling him back toward the group. He was done being brave and as he watched them lower the coffin six feet into the ground and start burying it, he let his guilt fall into the grave with the body of his best friend.

 

He cried reveling in the weight being lifted off his shoulders, not caring that it was in front of a big group of people. He was done caring what others thought of him, not that he cared that much in the first place.

 

Amelia and Thomas both hugged him as the ceremony finished. “Thank you Alec, for everything. You were her best friend, and we don’t blame you for this. It wasn’t your fault; it was no one’s except that piece of shit that attacked you guys. We love you Alec, you know you’re always welcome at our house,” Thomas said after releasing him.

 

“T-thank you guys too, for all you’ve done for us. I’m sorry. I knew we shouldn’t have gone to the park that night, but I was the one who suggested it. If I hadn’t Zoe, Sage, and Evan would still be here.” Alec replied wiping the tears away.

 

“Alec honey, it isn’t your fault. It isn’t any of your faults. It was just a very unfortunate thing that happened. There wasn’t anything any of you guys could have done. That man was going to do everything he could to try and hurt you, he had been stalking Finn for awhile and wasn’t going to stop until he did something. I’m just glad all of you weren’t hurt as well,” Amelia said, addressing the four of them. “We’ll see you guys tomorrow. We are going to go home and recuperate after today. Thank you all for coming and being here for her and for us. We appreciate it, you guys are all welcome anytime.”

 

“Of course Amelia, we wouldn’t have missed this for the world. Perhaps we can take Luci and Carson out along with Zander, Dimitri, Asher, and Avery. We can all go to the amusement park or something. As soon as everything is done and taken care of,” Thalia said smiling back.

 

“I’m sure they would love that. Just let us know, and you can take them anytime.”

 

The group parted ways the Smiths headed home, while the four of them hung around a bit longer.

 

“Thank you guys for bringing me into the group. I’m sorry this happened it was my fault. If I had been paying more attention this wouldn’t have happened. I should have known that that guy would come looking for me. I shouldn’t have let my guard down just because I moved. I thought I could run from what happened last year, but goes to show that I was naïve and now you guys paid for it,” Finn said looking down at the ground, not wanting to look at any of them.

 

“Finn you heard Amelia, it wasn’t your fault. None of this was. You don’t have anything to be sorry for. You did the right thing last year, staying in the car, if you hadn’t they would have killed you too. You did everything you could, with letting the police know that one of the gang members had escaped that night. There was no way to know that he had found you, or that he was going to come after you. It wouldn’t have done you any good to live in fear that something like this would have happened. We are so glad that you moved here, and met you. Though things might have been a bit rough between us in the beginning, I’m happy again. You have all of us, and your family of course. You’re a part of our group now whether you like it or not, and aren’t going to be able to leave that easily.” Alec said, while taking Finn’s hand in his.

 

Finn looked around smiling at the group, giving Alec’s hand a small squeeze. Alec reached his other hand out and grasped Thalia’s pulling her in, and Nico who’s hand she held in her opposite. Coming in to a hug, the group turned to face the spot where Zoe’s coffin lay buried just six feet below them.

 

After what seemed like hours the group finally turned around, and headed back to the car where Alec’s parents were waiting for them. Piling into the back they headed off to drop Thalia and Nico off at home.

 

Once they got home they ate pizza as a quick dinner. Once the kitchen was cleaned, Alec headed to his room with Finn right behind him.

 

Alec shut the door, and they sat on Alec’s bed searching for something to watch on Netflix. They finally settled on Tarzan, though neither of them were paying attention to it.

 

Finn turns to face him and takes a deep breath before speaking, “Thank you for everything. This was all my fault what’s happened. I knew that I shouldn’t have just run away from the problem instead of facing it, and dealing with it. Just after Aiden died, and the trial for it all, I just couldn’t deal with it anymore. I just needed to get out, and start over. I was tired of having to watch my back all the time, and worry about my mom and the twins. I thought it would all be over. I had no idea that it would follow me where I went, and affect the people that I care about here too. I’m sorry. I’m happy that it’s almost over now. This has all been a never ending nightmare for the past year, and I’m so glad that I don’t have to look over my shoulder all the time, and that guy is being locked up, so that he can’t hurt anyone again. I didn’t want all of you to get hurt in this. I know that this won’t solve anything, that it still happened and that I can’t turn back the clock to that night and I can-,” Alec leans over and kisses Finn to get him to stop talking.

 

“Finn, we meant it earlier this isn’t your fault. It’s the fault of that asshole that has been following you around, and it just happened that we were all there that night. I’m glad that we were there with you, and that it wasn’t just you alone. At least now we know what happened, and that disgusting person is locked up. If you had been alone, there is no telling what would have happened, and we wouldn’t have known anything, and the guy would have gotten away. Like they said earlier, yeah it sucks that we lost three of our friends that night, but at least everyone is okay, and safe. That no one else got hurt.” Alec reminds him gently after pulling back from the kiss.

 

Finn smiles at him, and leans over to kiss him. Alec kisses him back, slowly pulling Finn towards him and wraps one of his arms around his neck, while running his other hand through his hair. Finn wraps his arms around Alec’s waist, slowly laying down on the bed, pulling Alec on top of him. They continue to kiss while the movie plays on in the background. Alec runs his tongue over Finn’s lower lip, to which Finn complies and deepens the kiss.

 

Alec sits up to pull his shirt off before leaning down and kissing Finn again. “Shirt. Off. Now.” Alec tells Finn in between breathes. Finn quickly sits them up and pulls his shirt off.

 

Alec pushes him back down and continues to kiss him, while running his hands over Finn’s body. Groaning Finn moves one of his hands from Alec’s waist and starts to run it through his hair.

 

Finn then moves down to kiss Alec’s neck, finding his sweet spot Alec starts to moan. He tangles his hands back into Finn’s hair. He’s breathing hard, throwing his head back to give Finn better access to his neck. He can feel himself getting hard, making his jeans uncomfortable. He moves slightly to try to get a little more comfortable when he hears Finn moan, and his lips moving away from Alec’s neck back up to his mouth.

 

He can feel Finn’s errection against his thigh and he moves his hands from his hair down to his belt. Alec undoes Finn’s belt and is about to undo his pants when his door suddenly flies open “Alec, I wanted to kn-” his mom starts before looking and finding her son in an almost compromising position with his boyfriend.

 

Alec quickly scrambles to the other side of the bed, and feels his face heating up. “Mom. Um… hi. What are you um doing here?”

 

“Alec, I was coming in to see if you boys wanted any ice cream. But I uh see you’re busy with your movie. I’ll um… uh… leave you boys to finish um… Tarzan” She quickly leaves the room, pulling the door shut behind her.

 

Alec groans, running a hand through his hair. “Well that was humiliating. I knew I was forgetting something, like locking my door. Sorry,” He gives Finn a small smile.

 

“I-it’s okay. I’ll um… go uh… get my shirt.” He starts to get off the bed to pick up his discarded shirt from where he threw it earlier, and buckling his belt again.

 

“Um… you don’t have to. It’s okay if you uh… want to leave it off…” Alec mumbles, going red again.

 

“Okay… let me just go change into uh my sweats. I’ll um be right back.” Finn says before quickly rushing out of the room.

 

Alec can’t believe he forgot to lock his door. Not thinking of course that when they started the movie that it would have escalated so quickly. He gets up and changes into a pair of shorts before taking Tarzan out and switching over to watch Netflix. He chooses to put The Office on and settles on the bed and waits for Finn to return.

 

The rest of the night they cuddle and watch the show, only pausing to steal a kiss from the other.

 

The next morning Alec rolls over and sees Finn still asleep beside him. He sees that the clock reads 8:43. He gets up and goes to the bathroom to take a shower. When he gets back he sees that Finn is up and already dressed for the day. Once dressed they head downstairs to the kitchen to eat before heading off the Evan’s funeral at 11.

 

“Morning boys. Breakfast is almost ready. You guys can sit and it’ll be right out. Did you sleep well?” Alec’s mom greets them, no hint of what happened last night in her voice.

 

“Yeah I did. Thanks Mrs. Stone. Thanks again for letting me stay over last night.” Finn replies taking a seat next to Alec.

 

“No problem. Please call me Scarlett. You’re always welcome here.” Scarlett replies as she places a plate of waffles on the table.

 

Once the four of them finish cleaning after breakfast it’s already 10:30. They all head out and quickly arrive at the venue where the funerals taking place.

 

Alec leaves his parents in the car to go quickly find Thalia, Nico, and Evan’s family, with Finn following behind him. He spots Evan’s family quickly and heads over to where they’re standing.

 

“Hi Dimitri, Layla, Peter.” Alec greets the Lock’s.

 

“Hi Alec. Hi Finn. Thank you both for coming. It means a lot to us. You guys meant a lot to him. Thank you for everything.” Layla smiles at them and greets them.

 

“Yeah of course. We wouldn’t have missed it for the world. How have you been?”

 

“As good as you can expect. It’s been hard having to plan this. But everyone’s been really helpful.” Layla replies. “Oh, excuse us, my parents are here. I need to go fetch them. Thank you both again.” She says before rushing off.

 

“Hey Dimitri. How’re you holding up?” Alec asks the thirteen-year-old.

 

“Fine. Not like it matters. He’s not coming back anyways. I’m tired of people asking me that. It doesn’t matter, and no one cares. It’s over with. I’ll be glad when this is over, I’m sick and tired of hearing mom cry every night.” Dimitri replies solemnly glaring up at Alec.

 

“Hey, I do care. You are like a little brother to me. I’ve known you since you were little. Once all this calms down, come hang out with us. Luci, Zander, Carson, Avery and Asher will be there too. We’ll do a pool day at my house or something. Okay?”

 

“Yeah whatever.” Dimitri responds, then turns and walks away.

 

Thalia and Nico come join them a couple of minutes later. They all exchange hugs and go find seats near the front as the funeral is about to begin.

 

“Dear family and dear friends. We are here today to celebrate a young man who was taken from this world much too soon. Evan Lock was loved by all who met him. He was a man who had a bright future ahead of him and who was such a sweet young man. He will be dearly missed. He was a bright student who after graduating this year had planned to attend Julliard for his singing and acting. He leaves behind his parents Layla and Peter, and his younger brother Dimitri. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing Evan since he was very young, since I moved to town and became the pastor at this church. He was a very kind man, and who loved the lord with all his heart. It is such a tragedy to befall someone so young. What has happened these past couple of months was an act so terrible that three young adults lost their lives. They all live on in our hearts and through all who knew them. Now let us pray and then I invite whoever wants to, to come up and share some stories of Evan that you may have. Please keep them appropriate.”

 

As he finishes the speech and prayer many of their classmates go and tell stories of Evan when he was young and recent stories that made it seem like they cared, and knew him well.

 

Alec glances over through blurry eyes to see tears running down Thalia, Nico, and Finn’s faces as well. He reaches over to take Finn’s hand in his and leans his head on his shoulder.

 

Finn gives his hand a light squeeze and presses a quick kiss to his temple, before turning back to listen to more people tell their stories.

 

Finally, the funeral was over, much to long to Alec’s dislike. He was ready for the small family and close friends barbecue. To just be surrounded by people who really knew Evan, Zoe, and Sage, and who really cared about them.

 

Half an hour later they were all standing in Evan’s parents backyard. All of the moms were inside, the dads around the grill or sitting at the table. The younger kids were playing in the yard with a soccer ball, and the four of them were sitting around the pool.

 

This was just for their families to spend time together, and grieve together, and hopefully at least for a little while forget the pain and enjoy themselves for the first time in the past couple of months.

 

“I’m glad that all the ceremonies are over, and that we’re able to finally just be by ourselves without all those people staring at us, and asking if we’re alright all the time. I’m tired of trying to hold it together when I shouldn’t have to in the face of all those people, and in school” Thalia sighs leaning back in the chair.

 

“Me too. I’m glad that I still have all of you guys though. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d lost you guys that night too.” Nico says looking around at all of them.

“Me either. I can’t even think about it. I don’t know where I’d even be. It was hard enough losing those three and even thinking about if you three had been taken away too. Not something I can imagine. Love you guys.” Thalia says, sitting up and throwing her arms around Nico and Finn who were the closest to her.

 

The four of them sit there for awhile with their arms around each other, before breaking apart and sitting back in their chairs again.

 

“Well that was touching, but I’m tired of feeling sad for now. Let’s go play ball with the kids. I’m ready to get my mind off of all this shit.” Alec says with a grin.

 

“Oh you’re on. I’m going to kick your guy’s asses.” Thalia shouts racing over to where the younger kids were playing.

 

“Okay, teams are as followed. No complaining. On my side will be me, Dimitri, Alec, Avery, and Carson. Which means Finn, Nico, Luci, Asher, and Zander on the other other side. We’ll play three on three since the yard isn’t big enough for all of us. We will use the trees as the goal posts.” Thalia says directing them all on where to go and choosing the teams so that they are as fair as she can make them.

 

They all play for about an hour and a half before Evan’s dad Peter yells at them that the foods ready. They were all tired and ready to eat. Finn and Nico’s team had ended up winning in a close match with a 15-12 score.

 

They all trooped back to over to the patio to load up plates and find a place to sit.

 

Alec looked around smiling as he watched everyone laugh and have a good time. Letting all the pain go at least for a night.

 

“What are you so happy about?” Finn says looking over at him.

 

“Nothing, just watching everyone.” Alec smiles kissing his cheek before he resumes eating.

 

Not knowing what the next few months would bring for them all. He revels in the bliss and happy atmosphere that surrounds all of them. Finally, feeling happy and at peace for once in quite a long time.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to everyone who has read this. I know the updates have been super slow. I'm trying to work on that, so that I write more frequently.


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